Overview

• New reporting finds the administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer-related grants and contracts, suspended or delayed payments for hundreds of millions more, and cited DEI concerns to justify some actions.
• The White House budget proposal seeks to cut the National Cancer Institute to $4.5 billion from $7.2 billion, a reduction of more than 37 percent.
• Hundreds of government employees tied to the federal cancer-research system have been terminated, disrupting program continuity and oversight.
• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has ended federal support for mRNA research, despite clinical trials indicating survival gains from mRNA-based cancer vaccines, according to the coverage.
• Futurism, citing the New York Times, reports a $2.7 billion reduction to the NIH in the first three months of the term, with layoffs and study freezes compounding concerns about a potential talent exodus and stalled progress.