A couple of weeks ago, we reported in this space that the budget for the National Cancer institute went from $7.221 billion in 2024, to $4.53 billion for 2026, a slash of $2.69 billion.
As we knew then, that was only one part of the health consequences from cuts that grew out of the Elon Musk-led “Department of Government Efficiency,” despite the administration’s other acronym-friendly initiative: Make America Health Again.
The National Institutes of Health ended more than 1800 grants and cut $8 billion in new and existing grants over the time period between February and June of this year, some of which was tied to the administration’s efforts to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, though some of the research simply took place at institutions targeted for having policies at odds with the administration’s.
“Some of these studies were longitudinal studies that have been conducted over years,” Mandi Pratt-Chapman, PhD, an associate professor at George Washington University and associate center director of Patient-Centered Initiatives and Health Equity at the GW Cancer Center in Washington, DC, told Cancer Therapy Advisor. “For studies following up with people over time to test a specific hypothesis, you can never get that data again once a study is interrupted.”
According to a report published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers estimated the NIH funding cuts interrupted nearly 1 in 30 NIH clinical trials involving more than 74,000 individuals who were enrolled in them.
Clinical trials involve testing new treatments–drugs or devices–on human volunteers. They are, according to the Cleveland Clinic, “significant because they’re the only way for researchers to find out if a potential new treatment works and is safe.”
In randomized clinical trials, a portion of patients with a disease or illness receive a certain treatment and a portion do not. Because patients don’t know which group they’re in, some patients risk not getting treatment that may be beneficial but is untested, and others may get treatment with side-effects that are still being discovered. There are risks and possible rewards. More to the point, it may be of no help to the volunteer, but could help future patients suffering from the same condition. Thus, patients who enter clinical trials are the unsung heroes of medicine. My wife is among them.
Clinical trials take time, effort, and money because they build their data carefully and methodically over time. Stopping them part of the way through does no one any good.
“Clinical trials aren’t light switches,” Celine Gounder, an editor at large for public health at KFF Health News, told CBS News. “You can’t just flip them off without consequences. Cutting off funding mid-trial wastes research dollars and puts patients at risk. This is a breach of trust with every person who volunteers for research.” I would put it more strongly than that.
Cute acronyms aside, it’s hard to understand how any of these drastic cuts exemplify government efficiency, or make America healthy again. For those who have volunteered for clinical trials, and for the most of us who have benefited from them, it’s hard to understand, period.
Jeff Hagan
Communications Director