US Cancer Research Lost 31% Funding During Trump Rule

The administration of US President Donald Trump has dramatically curtailed cancer research funding, slashing allocations by 31 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year, according to a damning Senate report released on Tuesday. The report, commissioned by Senator Bernie Sanders, portrays the cuts as part of what he described as a “war on science” being waged from the White House.

The analysis revealed that by April, at least $13.5 billion in federal health funding had been eliminated, impacting 1,660 research grants and triggering widespread layoffs of scientific personnel.

One of the most severely affected institutions was the National Cancer Institute, which suffered funding reductions exceeding $300 million in the first three months of the year alone. When adjusted for inflation, the Institute’s grant funding has now fallen to its lowest point in more than a decade. Its parent body, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), also saw its budget slashed by $2.7 billion during the same period.

“Since January, the Trump administration has initiated an unprecedented, illegal, and morally indefensible assault on science, scientists, and the institutions that underpin public health,” said Sanders, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Critics warn that these sweeping cuts risk undermining decades of progress in cancer research, jeopardizing the development of lifesaving treatments and diminishing the United States’ global leadership in biomedical innovation.

“Trump is not only denying scientific truth but actively seeking to undermine it.”

Based on interviews with dozens of federal scientists and health workers, the report paints a picture of chaos across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 175 public health datasets were deleted, leaving doctors “without vetted guidance on how to treat patients,” one physician said.

“Trump is not only denying scientific truth but actively seeking to undermine it.”

Based on interviews with dozens of federal scientists and health workers, the report paints a picture of chaos across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 175 public health datasets were deleted, leaving doctors “without vetted guidance on how to treat patients,” one physician said.

A 43-year-old colorectal cancer patient, already treated with surgery, radiation, and 48 rounds of chemotherapy, said her participation in a T-cell therapy trial at the NIH was delayed due to staff shortages.

“The reality is that by reducing money and staff, the NIH will not be able to produce my treatment — and it might cost me my life,” she told Senate staff.

At the NIH Clinical Center, the fallout from the sweeping budget cuts has thrown research operations into disarray, as entire laboratories were disbanded and critical projects abruptly shuttered. The report portrays a system in crisis, where scientists are sidelined and lifesaving research is stalled.

The Senate report further underscored the compounding public health risks posed by the administration’s actions, warning of the dangerous convergence of funding cuts and rampant misinformation amid a growing measles outbreak that has already infected more than 1,000 individuals and claimed three lives. Over 40 federally funded grants aimed at studying vaccine hesitancy have been revoked, undermining efforts to counter disinformation at a crucial time.

In a move that has alarmed public health experts, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed David Geier — a widely discredited vaccine conspiracy theorist previously sanctioned for practicing medicine without a license and conducting unethical drug trials on autistic children — to spearhead a renewed investigation into the thoroughly debunked theory linking vaccines to autism, despite overwhelming scientific consensus to the contrary.

While President Trump is proposing a 26 percent reduction to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) budget in the upcoming fiscal year, his administration has paradoxically allocated $500 million to Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, a campaign emphasizing nutrition, physical activity, and what it terms “the nation’s over-reliance on medication” — an approach critics describe as pseudoscientific and politically motivated.