The NIH and NCI budgets have remained smaller than needed for years, making this the longest sustained period of flat government funding for cancer research in the country’s entire history. With medical inflation hovering around 18% each year, the real value of the dollars earmarked for cancer research has plummeted. The failure to secure adequate funding puts in jeopardy much of the prior research we have already paid for in past years. The lack of funding we have experienced has been a major cause in the reduction of clinical trials as well as in the elimination and slowing down of many on-going research projects and labs.
We should not continue to tolerate these flat budgets because they are actually budget cuts. These cuts mean that more of our children and us will suf