The AACR Call to Action

Sustained Progress Requires Sustained Commitment

The extraordinary achievements detailed in this and the previous 14 editions of the AACR Cancer Progress Report are the direct result of more than 50 years of strategic, bipartisan investment in medical research. These efforts have transformed our understanding of the more than 200 different diseases we call cancer, accelerated the discovery of innovative treatments, and helped millions of people live longer, healthier lives.

This progress reflects a national commitment that has united policymakers across party lines behind the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For decades, research supported by these agencies has not only advanced our knowledge of cancer, but it has also transformed once-unimaginable hopes into tangible outcomes: more early detections, more effective treatments, and more time with the people we love. Patients are living well beyond their diagnoses, and families are seeing futures they once feared they would never see. These remarkable advances are the very outcomes made possible by sustained investment in science.

But all of that progress is now at risk.

A Growing Threat to Scientific Progress

The president’s fiscal year 2026 budget would reduce NIH funding by nearly 40 percent. This unprecedented cut would devastate cancer research, derail scientific progress, and jeopardize future cures. Additional reductions targeting the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) would compound the damage, eroding the infrastructure that supports discovery and patient access to lifesaving advances. The president’s proposal breaks with decades of bipartisan commitment and follows a year of funding constraints, policy changes, and administrative upheaval that have already destabilized the medical research enterprise.

One of the most alarming of these new policies is a sweeping executive order titled “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking” issued in August that strikes at the foundation of American science. It gives political appointees extraordinary authority to override expert peer review, retroactively cancel previously awarded research grants, and reshape funding priorities based on ideology rather than evidence. This expansion of political control would dismantle the safeguards that have kept research independent for decades. In cancer research, it could mean halting a clinical trial for patients with no remaining treatment options simply because it no longer aligns with shifting political priorities, erasing years of work, wasting taxpayer dollars, and leaving patients without hope.

These new threats are striking a research system weakened by instability at the very institutions that drive medical progress. The damage is slowing discovery, disrupting care, and eroding confidence in the future of federally supported science. Without stability and sage direction, progress will stall, and patients will be left waiting, unsure if the answers they need will come in time.

Bottom line, the actions this administration is taking are dismantling an infrastructure that has enabled decades of progress and are abandoning our nation’s historic commitment to science and the patients whose lives are at stake.

A Moment of Bipartisan Progress

Congress has the power and the obligation to protect the progress that science has made possible, and after months of uncertainty and escalating concern, Congress is beginning to respond. In late July, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a bipartisan bill that rejected devastating cuts to NIH and NCI and reaffirmed the importance of science in safeguarding the nation’s health. The bill provides $47.2 billion for NIH and $7.374 billion for NCI, which includes increases of $400 million for NIH and $150 million for NCI. This action was a forceful rejection of policies that have delayed research, dismantled infrastructure, and weakened America’s position as a global leader in medical innovation.

The bill includes critical provisions to block harmful administrative changes, defend scientific independence, and protect the foundation that enables lifesaving discovery. The leadership from Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Patty Murray (D-WA) was instrumental in advancing this bill and reaffirming Congress’s bipartisan commitment to science, patients, and the future of medical research. At a time of deep division and political pressure, they demonstrated what responsible, forward-looking leaders can achieve.

But the crisis has not passed. Delays in NIH funding remain unresolved. Political interference continues. Research institutions are operating in a climate of fear and instability. The medical research community is counting on Congress to pass a full-year spending bill for NIH in fiscal year (FY) 2026, as opposed to agreeing to a full-year continuing resolution for FY 2026 that would extend funding for NIH through September 30, 2026, at the same level as FY 2025.

Congress Must Act

AACR urges Congress to take immediate action to:

Restart clinical trials and restore canceled research grants to ensure that patients are not turned away from lifesaving studies and that promising science is not lost at a critical stage.
Support the federal research infrastructure to repair the damage caused by mass reductions in workforce, frozen contracts, and suspended peer review. Discovery has stalled, and scientific capacity is breaking down.
Protect public health programs that prevent cancer to avoid losing ground on screening, HPV vaccination, tobacco cessation, and early interventions. These efforts save lives.
Ensure that new treatments reach patients without delay to prevent promising therapies from being trapped in bureaucratic limbo while families wait for help that may come too late.
Foster early-career and early-stage scientists and stabilize research careers to stop the exodus of postdoctoral researchers and junior investigators who are abandoning science or being recruited overseas. When they leave, they take future cures with them.
Defend the independence and integrity of science by reversing the August executive order that politicizes federal grantmaking, thus restoring safeguards that keep research free from political interference and ensuring that grantmaking, peer review, and public policies are guided by scientific evidence rather than ideology.
Reassert America’s global leadership in medical innovation to preserve decades of progress and ensure the United States remains at the forefront of the next generation of cures.
Provide no less than $51.303 billion for NIH and $7.934 billion for NCI in fiscal year 2026 to sustain the scientific workforce, power new breakthroughs against cancer and other human diseases, and uphold a national commitment to the patients and families who are relying on lifesaving progress.

The Path Forward

Cancer remains one of the most urgent and universal challenges of our time. It touches every family, every community, and every generation. For more than 50 years, the United States has led the world in confronting this disease through bold investment, bipartisan resolve, and a belief in the power of science to save lives.

At this pivotal moment, Congress must act. The future of cancer research depends on sustained federal investment, an independent and stable scientific enterprise, and policies that put patients first. What happens next will determine whether people receive the care they need, whether families find answers, and whether science continues to deliver hope to those who need it most.

We know what science can achieve when it is supported and allowed to flourish. We owe it to every patient, every survivor, and every family to protect the progress we have made and deliver on the promise of a future without cancer.

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