AACR report calls for US cancer funding to be a national priority

Declining budgets have slowed the pace of research into cancer, according to a new report from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

The AACR 2014 Cancer Progress Report found that while research continues to provide significant advances against cancer, spurred by investments in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), the pace of progress is being slowed by declining budgets. It calls on the administration and Congress to prioritize the growth of the NIH and NCI budgets at a predictable pace by providing annual budget increases, which are at least comparable to the biomedical inflation rate.

Carlos Arteaga, president of the AACR and professor of medicine and cancer biology at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, said: “While we are continuing to make impressive progress against cancer, the pace of that progress is being slowed due to years of declining budgets at the NIH and NCI. If we are to fully realize the promise of science to transform cancer care, it will require leadership in Congress and within the administration to ensure that biomedical research in cancer becomes a major priority for our nation."