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Through the Defending Cancer Research Digest, AACI is keeping members informed about what is happening at other cancer centers and around the country. We also aim to educate people outside the cancer center network on the very real benefits of research funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute and to mobilize them to speak out on what all Americans stand to lose.
Please read through the stories collected here and share them widely on social media, through your institutions' communication channels, and in your communities. And send us stories from your cancer centers and local media. Stories focused on patients especially resonate with legislators and the public.
If you haven’t already, please follow AACI on social media and tag us in your posts. Use our hashtag, #DefendingCancerResearch, to help amplify our messages. And please visit AACI's Press Room regularly for press releases, statements, and videos.
AACI exists to connect our network of over 100 academic cancer centers through collaboration and communication. There is strength in numbers and we are better together.
| | DEFENDING CANCER RESEARCH DIGEST | | |
The War on Cancer Needs President Trump's Help
U.S. News & World Report
This piece was co-authored by:
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Karen E. Knudsen, PhD, chief executive officer, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; former chief executive officer, American Cancer Society
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Dave Fredrickson, executive vice president, Oncology Haematology Business Unit, AstraZeneca
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Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD, co-founder, Highlander Health
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Michael Pellini, MD, general partner, S32
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Bob Li, MD, PhD, global head of medical affairs, Oncology, AstraZeneca
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Norman Sharpless, MD, former director, National Cancer Institute; professor of cancer policy and innovation, UNC School of Medicine; managing director, Jupiter BioVentures
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Esther Krofah, executive vice president, Milken Institute Health
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David Shulkin, MD, former secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
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Dee Anna Smith, chief executive officer, Sarah Cannon Research Institute
Read More
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NIH Scientists Have a Cancer Breakthrough. Layoffs Are Delaying It
The Washington Post
The quality of care at the NIH Clinical Center, the country’s largest research hospital, remains excellent, [NIH immunotherapy pioneer Steven] Rosenberg said. But the Trump administration’s aggressive downsizing of staff and hampering of routine activities is beginning to delay that care.
"Everything I try to do, I try to do at warp speed. These are people with desperate illnesses and nowhere to go," Rosenberg said. "Right now, assuming things don’t get any worse, it would be a month [delay]. These are not patients that have very many months left." Read More
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Science
Sixteen state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration and NIH over the abrupt terminations of grants and delays in reviewing grant applications. ... "I won’t allow the Trump Administration to take unlawful actions that play politics with our public health," Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement. Read More
| | Dr. Heide Ford, center, CU Medicine Endowed Chair in Pharmacology, along with graduate student Art Wolin, left, shows U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper around the Ford Lab at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus on March 18, 2025, in Aurora, Colorado. The lab focuses on research into cancer cells and potential treatments for cancer. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun) | | |
Funding Cuts to CU-Anschutz Could Erase Years of Medical Research Contributed by Patients, Advocates Fear
The Colorado Sun
"There’s a lot of stress in academia right now," [Dr.] Heide Ford told [Sen.] Hickenlooper during a tour of her lab, which studies cancer cells.
Researchers talked about fearing that their grants could be canceled at any moment, especially if their research involves work on possibly politically charged to pics like women’s health, climate change or vaccines.
... Dr. Lia Gore, who studies and treats cancer in children, said funding cuts that limit opportunity for young researchers could lead to a loss of a generation of scientists, leaving fewer to pick up where the previous generation’s work left off.
"We are so fragile right now," she said. Read More
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Florida Legislature Shuns DeSantis Administration’s Cancer Proposal
Florida Phoenix
As the House and Senate begin work on the General Appropriations Act …, neither chamber has agreed to an effort by the administration to redirect hundreds of millions in cancer funding away from four National Cancer Institute-designated Florida hospitals to other cancer providers.
The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider legislation (SB 7028) Tuesday that would maintain the existing funding formula for the four NCI-designated hospitals and modify the Florida Cancer Connect Collaborative, an initiative promoted by First Lady Casey DeSantis and which the Legislature agreed to codify into law. Read More
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NIH Cuts Projected to Cost UI System $67 Million Annually
Daily Ilini
In March, UI System President Timothy Killeen sent a letter to Illinois senators and representatives expressing his "grave concern" over the loss of system funding and its impacts on the University …
"Whether it’s the Cancer Center or any other department, the impact is the same: It will greatly hinder our ability to do research," said Cancer Center at Illinois Director Rohit Bhargava. Read More
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Wilmot Cancer Institute, UR Medicine
"What used to be loosely associated bands of faculty across UR morphed into three well-defined Wilmot research programs …
“What emerged was a Wilmot identity, a crystallization of an ‘us’ as opposed to a collection of individuals,” [Dr. Hucky] Land says. “That happens when you trust each other and you realize that together you’re much more powerful.”
In the end, cancer patients benefit as motivated research teams not only join forces but also turn toward the community, to seek input and ensure that their painstaking work connects to the needs of the people in western and central New York. Read More
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Our Region's Business - Association of American Cancer Institutes
WPXI-TV
AACI Executive Director Jennifer W. Pegher appeared on "Our Region's Business," a business affairs program broadcast in Pittsburgh, where AACI is based. Pegher shared the impact of federal investments in the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute and explained how disruptions to cancer research and clinical trials could mean the difference between life and death for patients with cancer. Read More
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On Friday, April 4, AACI launched a social media campaign with video content highlighting the importance of federal funding for cancer research.
The first video featured Tammara Watts, MD, PhD, of Duke Cancer Institute, who emphasized the value of NIH and NCI funding for expanding treatment options for patients with head and neck cancer.
| | AACI STATEMENTS AND PRESS RELEASES | | |
About AACI
The Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) represents over 100 premier academic and freestanding cancer centers in the United States and Canada. AACI is accelerating progress against cancer by enhancing the impact of academic cancer centers and promoting cancer health equity.
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PO Box 7317
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-647-6111
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