In December 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act and declared a “War on Cancer.” In the past 54 years, the U.S. has invested $180 billion nominally, or approximately $322 billion when adjusted for inflation, in cancer research. This investment has paid dividends with more than 100 anticancer drugs brought to market in half a century—virtually all traceable to National Cancer Institute funding.
The House is on track to join the Senate in rejecting the Trump administration’s budget proposal that would cut NIH by $18 billion.
