When America declared war on cancer more than 50 years ago, there was a misguided assumption outside the scientific community that it would be only a matter of years before the disease was eradicated. … But there would be no miracle cure: As of this writing, some 40 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life.
What there would be, however, was decades of minor breakthroughs that would accrue over time, transforming both our understanding of the disease and our ability to treat it. … In the mid-1970s, America’s five-year cancer-survival rate sat at 49 percent; today, it is 68 percent. … Now an extraordinarily successful scientific research system — one that took decades to build … — is being dismantled before our eyes.
In a matter of months, the Trump administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer-related research grants and contracts … and suspended or delayed payments for hundreds of millions more. … And the president’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for a more-than-37-percent cut to the National Cancer Institute.
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