World's premier cancer institute faces crippling cuts and chaos

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Health

PUBLISHED Jul 8, 2025, 7:00 AM ET


The Trump administration’s broadsides against scientific research have caused unprecedented upheaval at the National Cancer Institute, the storied federal government research hub that has spearheaded advances against the disease for decades. NCI, which has long benefited from enthusiastic bipartisan support, now faces an exodus of clinicians, scientists, and other staffers, some fired, others leaving in exasperation.

After years of accelerating progress that has reduced cancer deaths by a third since the 1990s, the institute has terminated funds nationwide for research to fight the disease, expand care, and train new oncologists. “We use the word ‘drone attack’ now regularly,” one worker said of grant terminations. “It just happens from above.” The assault could well result in a perceptible slowing of progress in the fight against cancer.

Nearly 2 million Americans are diagnosed with malignancies every year. In 2023, cancer killed more than 613,000 people, making it the second leading cause of death after heart disease. But the cancer fight has also made enormous progress. Cancer mortality in the U.S. has fallen by 34% since 1991, according to the American Cancer Society. There are roughly 18 million cancer survivors in the country.

That trend “we can very, very closely tie to the enhanced investment in cancer science by the U.S. government,” said Karen Knudsen, CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and a globally recognized expert on prostate cancer. “We’re winning,” Knudsen said. “Why we would let up, I really don’t understand.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/08/health/national-cancer-institute-cuts-kff-health-news

[Nigrum Cattus]

1. As a 3 different cancer survivor

I fully understand how dense this is. We are at
approx. 90% cure rate for early diagnosed malignancies
in the 1st world. Those cures are not a joke, they are
very real. Now we will have other medical/research
systems outpace us due to lack of vision.

[lostincalifornia]

2. From what I have read many of our scientists are trying to be recruited from Europe and international

medical research centers.

https://apnews.com/article/europe-us-science-funding-researchers-6a769e6d40c5127d59797e44a2470cfe

[DanBaron]

3. MAGA Cancer

It is ironic because MAGA is like a Cancer that consumed the Republican Party and now is consuming American Democracy. The National Cancer Institute is one of the Crown Jewels of American Civilization and MAGA Trump is destroying it. These people in the White House should honestly get Cancer and Die and then we will see how they like it. We had a Public Private alliance and now Trump and his Gang of Thieves and Sociopaths are trying to run off with the People's Money. These lower level MAGAs should all get Cancer and then they might be singing a different tune.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Any thing that made America great must be destroyed.

And as many Americans as possible must be killed.

[Hekate]

5. The brain-drain will continue apace. The country that sent a man to the Moon & conquered Polio...

…is going to be grubbing around for quack cures and watching their babies and children die of preventable diseases.

[summer_in_TX]

6. Trump's revenge on Biden, I suspect.

The smallness.

C.S. Lewis described hell as an infinitely small place. I didn't quite get it, but the smallness of Trump's soul, the unlimited pettiness, gives me a hint of what he meant. Trump is a natural denizen of that kind of hell, I suspect. At least allegorically so.