On Sunday, March 23, AACI Executive Director Jennifer W. Pegher appeared on "Our Region's Business," a Pittsburgh business affairs program produced jointly by WPXI-TV and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. 

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. 

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Impact of Federal Investments in NIH and NCI



• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest funder of medical research in the world and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is one of 27 institutes within the NIH.
• Federal investments in the NIH and NCI directly support research that leads to breakthroughs – not only in treatments and cures, but in more and better ways to prevent cancer and find it early. As of March 20, nearly 1,000 NIH-funded research grants had been terminated.
• There are 73 NCI-Designated Cancer Centers nationwide. Roughly 400,000 patients receive a cancer diagnosis at an NCI-Designated Cancer each year and thousands of patients are enrolled in clinical trials at these centers. But clinical trials are being shut down nationwide due to funding cuts, disrupting treatment that may be a patient's last hope.
• Every dollar invested in NIH research generates $2.56 in local economies.
• Advances in cancer research funded by NIH and NCI have led to a 34% increase in cancer survival in the U.S. from 1991 to 2022.
• Between 1975 and 2020, 4.75 million deaths from breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers were averted through screening and prevention efforts.