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Attendees participate in a demonstration of support for the NIH and federally funded cancer research during the Opening Ceremony of the AACR Annual Meeting 2025.2025 was a year of crisis for the cancer research community, as the Administration dismissed dedicated scientists and other public servants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), cut federal funding for leading cancer centers and other research institutions, and proposed cutting the fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget for NIH by nearly 40%. Through a wide range of initiatives, AACR spent the year leading efforts to defend medical research and sustain progress against cancer for all populations.
With each new development in the ongoing crisis, AACR took strong positions in defense of cancer research and called on scientists, clinicians, other health care professionals, cancer survivors, and patient advocates to join them:
Read AACR’s statement in defense of NIH
Read AACR’s statement rejecting the Administration’s devastating FY2026 budget
The AACR Annual Meeting is the focal point of the cancer community, where all stakeholders gather to share the latest advances in cancer science and medicine. In April, the AACR Annual Meeting 2025 was also the epicenter of the resistance to the Administration’s attempts to disrupt and defund the cancer research enterprise.
Throughout the summer and fall, AACR led a comprehensive outreach effort to AACR members and the overall cancer research community. Social media posts and twice-weekly emails highlighted the risks that the Administration’s actions posed to cancer science and medicine, and urged members of the community to contact their Congressional representatives and advocate for NIH funding. Highlights of the outreach campaign included the following:
While the AACR Office of Science Policy and Government Affairs (OSPGA) maintains an ongoing dialogue with policymakers about the critical value of federal funding for cancer research, those efforts took on an increased urgency in 2025. AACR engaged with Congress in a myriad of ways over the past year to defend cancer and other biomedical research:
AACR also stepped up its efforts to provide policymakers with the resources they need to make informed science policy decisions, commissioning a national bipartisan survey to measure voters’ attitudes about federal funding for medical research and cancer research. During the release event for the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2025—which catalogues the progress against cancer made over the past year and underscores the wave of federally funded scientific breakthroughs that made this progress possible—AACR shared the results of the survey, which demonstrated that Americans support federal funding for cancer research by an overwhelming margin:
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Despite the myriad challenges of the past year, there was reason for hope. As the year came to a close, there were indications that the efforts of AACR and other stakeholders have had an impact on budget negotiations. In July, Senator Britt and 13 Republican colleagues called on the Office of Management and Budget to lift its abrupt hold on NIH grant funding and immediately disburse all FY2025 funds for the Institutes. And entering the new year, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives were working on a funding package that was projected to increase NIH funding by $415 million (including $128 million for the NCI).
While progress has been made, the Administration’s policies will continue to threaten cancer science and medicine in the coming year. AACR is committed to advocating for sustained, robust funding for NIH—and we urge all members of the cancer research community in the U.S. to continue calling on their representatives to protect the future of cancer research.
