---
title: "Trump Shutting Down Cancer Research"
description: "Trump has sharply cut funding to cancer research in the US, threatening the country's scientific standing and the health of Americans."
date: "2025-09-16"
modified: "2025-09-16"
authors:
  - name: "Sharon Adarlo"
    job_title: "Correspondent"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/sadarlo"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/trump-shutting-down-cancer-research"
categories:
  - "Cancer"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
tags:
  - "cancer"
  - "donald trump"
  - "nih"
  - "rfk jr"
---

# Trump Shutting Down Cancer Research

![Trump has sharply cut funding to cancer research in the US, threatening the country's scientific standing and the health of Americans.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/trump-shutting-down-cancer-research.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Kevin Dietsch / Clive Brunskill / Getty / Futurism\</em\>*

The United States' standing as an important place for cancer research is under threat.

As the[ *New York Times* reports](<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/magazine/cancer-research-grants-funds-trump.html>), the Trump administration has dramatically slashed funding to US-based cancer research, endangering the country's overall leading position in science research — not to mention the fates of cancer patients across the country.

"We are great in science," Harold Varmus, former director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and a Nobel prize-winning scientist, told the *NYT*. "Why would we want to destroy one of our greatest assets?"

In the first three months of his second term, [Trump has slashed $2.7 billion from the NIH's budget](<https://www.sanders.senate.gov/in-the-news/trump-administration-cut-2-7-billion-in-nih-research-funding-through-march-senate-committee-minority-report-says/>). Federal cancer research, in particular, has seen drastic reductions, which critics say will hamper any advancement in finding effective treatments. This has translated into [mass layoffs](<https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2025-07-16/thousands-laid-off-from-nih-fda-and-cdc-after-supreme-court-decision>) and the [freezing of important ongoing studies](<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00703-1>).

In addition, Trump has proposed another round of cuts for next year, such as reducing the budget of the NIH agency, the National Cancer Institute, from $7.2 billion to $4.5 billion, according to the *NYT*.

The cuts could have devastating consequences. According to a [study](<https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.22.01826>) published in the *Journal of Clinical Oncology,* every $326 spent on cancer research adds a year to one's life expectancy *—* a bargain, relatively speaking.

The five-year survival rate for cancer has risen from just 49 percent in the 1970s to 68 percent today, according to the *NYT*. The implications are enormous — [approximately 38.9 percent](<https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics>) of Americans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The push for cuts is animated by [distrust among many conservatives](<https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8631569/>) that the overall health apparatus in this country has become corrupt, oppressive, and politicized, especially during the worst days of the [COVID pandemic when lockdowns were in place](<https://www.cdc.gov/museum/timeline/covid19.html>). (Tellingly, conservatives also tend to [distrust information](<https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10625042/#:~:text=Discussion,health%20care%20experience%20and%20outcomes.>) on cancer from government health organizations.)

Conservatives have also used Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives to justify funding cuts,[ some of which were flagged erroneously](<https://georgiarecorder.com/2025/09/16/nih-grant-cuts-throw-science-into-a-downward-spiral-researchers-and-advocates-say/>) because grant applications contained hot-button words like "trans."

Vaccine skeptic and secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr, also [canceled promising work on mRNA](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/rfk-jr-cancels-cancer-vaccine-mrna>), which could've potentially led to a [universal vaccine against cancer](<https://ufhealth.org/news/2025/surprising-finding-could-pave-way-for-universal-cancer-vaccine>), according to experts.

That's what's especially galling about these cuts — we know so much more about cancer and are on the brink of some incredible scientific breakthroughs, such as new cancer radiation therapies that are [more targeted and less harmful](<https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9591027/>) to surrounding healthy tissue, [according to the *NYT*](<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/magazine/trump-administration-cancer.html>).

"I believe I am one of only a small handful of labs in the country that specializes in drug-delivery barriers in pediatric brain cancer," University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School professor Rachael Sirianni told the *NYT*.

Sirianni's research focuses on a fast-growing brain cancer in children called medulloblastoma.

"When you remove me from the ecosystem, you are removing something that can’t be replaced."

Meanwhile, top scientists are [looking to leave the US behind](<https://futurism.com/scientists-brain-drain-trump-white-house>). Varmus, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on cancer, has received invitations from foreign governments to continue his work.

**More on cancer research:** [*RFK Jr. Cancels Promising Work on Cancer Vaccine*](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/rfk-jr-cancels-cancer-vaccine-mrna>)