The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) pushed back strongly against massive cuts of $5.8 billion for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in President Donald Trump's federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2018, saying they would set progress back for decades just as extraordinary advances are being made against cancer and other serious diseases.
The drastic cuts proposed by the administration would also "threaten the careers of an entire generation of young investigators working in labs and clinics all over the country who are committed to improving public health and saving lives," the AACR said in a statement.
The organization called on Congress to stand firmly against the budget proposal.
"We urge them to maintain the momentum they initiated in FY 2016 when they provided the NIH with a $2 billion funding increase so as to ensure that medical research remains a national priority," the AACR stated. "Providing robust, sustained, and predictable annual funding increases for the NIH is absolutely required for the benefit of cancer patients nationwide."
Because the Trump administration's budget proposal will severely jeopardize progress being made in preventing, treating, and curing cancer, the proposal "must be stopped in its tracks," the AACR said.
