American Cancer Society plans to double research budget in five years

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on email
Share on print

THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY plans to double its annual funding for research by 2021. The society made the announcement in conjunction with Vice President Biden’s National Cancer Moonshot Summit at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

ACS plans to increase its annual research investment to approximately $240 million by 2021. The organization currently spends about $100 million per year in new grants to academic research institutions and another $15 to $20 million annually in research by ACS investigators in cancer epidemiology, surveillance and health services, behavioral research, and economics and health policy.

ACS has invested $4.5 billion in research since 1946. According to the society, 47 of its funded researchers have won Nobel Prizes for their work.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

At the Sept. 4 meeting of the National Cancer Advisory Board, NCI Principal Deputy Director Douglas R. Lowy provided an overview of how NCI is weathering the maelstrom of executive orders, policy changes, and funding uncertainties that has come down on federal agencies and research institutes since Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. 
A Senate hearing that the administration hoped would be a routine check-in on the president’s 2026 MAHA-driven healthcare agenda erupted into a political firestorm as senators jumped at their first opportunity to confront HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the chaos engulfing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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. 

Never miss an issue!

Get alerts for our award-winning coverage in your inbox.

Login