Experts fear four years of these sorts of attacks will take decades to recover from and stall the progress of treatments, even as cancer rates rise.
The slash to cancer research comes after former President Biden, who revealed he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer this week, aimed for major medical advancements through his “Cancer Moonshot” initiative.
“I see a large number of people who should be at the great universities over the next 10-15 years trying to figure out how to bail out right now, and I’m afraid we’re going to lose a generation of America’s best researchers, and that’s going to be a huge setback for us,” said Otis Brawley, an expert in cancer prevention and control at Johns Hopkins University.
Studies are getting hit on multiple fronts, particularly at schools being targeted by the administration due to alleged inaction on antisemitism or an unwillingness to meet President Trump’s demands.
The president of Harvard University, which is suing over its cuts, has warned numerous times the billions of dollars in funding frozen will significantly affect medical advancements. In March, Harvard announced a hiring freeze amid the financial uncertainty under Trump.
And along with the school-specific funding blocks, cancer research grants have been affected by cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). An analysis in JAMA earlier this month found the NIH alone cut almost $1.5 billion in funding in less than 40 days.
Read more from The Hill’s Lexi Lonas Cochran here.
