Increase Federal Funding for Cancer Research and Prevention, Organizations Urge

March 27, 2019

ASCO joined hundreds of other patient groups, scientific societies, and research and health care institutions in urging members of Congress to increase federal funding for cancer research and prevention in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 funding bill.

In a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, members of One Voice Against Cancer (OVAC), including ASCO, request that Congress provide $41.584 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including $6.522 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

“…Significant progress has been made to reduce the loss of purchasing power experienced by the NIH and NCI since FY 2003, which marked the end of the five-year doubling of NIH. However, NIH funding is still 8.4 percent less than what it would have been if funding had simply kept up with biomedical inflation,” the letter states. “Even counting the [National Cancer Moonshot Initiative], NCI’s budget lags 15.6 percent, or $1.1 billion, below what it would have been if funding had kept pace with biomedical inflation since FY 2003.”

OVAC also requests $555 million for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cancer programs; $266 million for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support oncology nurse training, scholarships, and loan repayments; and sustained support for the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Oncology Centers of Excellence (OCE).

Read the letter.

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