Now that Congress has reached a new budget deal, ACS CAN renewed its call for Congress to fully restore federal funding for cancer research.
The impacts of the cuts due to sequestration are being felt throughout the research industry and are endangering the progress we continue to make in the fight against cancer. "Promising young scientists are becoming discouraged and leaving the field," a Johns Hopkins University researcher told the New York Times.
Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), put the impact in even more stark terms. A recent Washington Post article reported "Collins said that the NIH issued 640 fewer grants in the last fiscal year and that if the cuts continue at the same level next year, several hundred more projects will not be funded."
Cancer continues to be a leading cause of death, reaching indiscriminately into every state and community. One in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. The disease will kill more than 580,000 people in the United States this year and will cost more than $201 billion in medical care and lost productivity.
After months of delay and hard negotiations, Congress has finally passed a funding bill! The bill includes a small increase for cancer research and prevention programs.