Chaos at the NIH: What Does It Mean for Breast Cancer?
Updated on October 15, 2025
If you’re receiving breast cancer care in the U.S. or have in the past, chances are your treatment was developed in part with funding from the federal government.
It’s a long and expensive process to develop a drug or treatment. To quicken this process and ensure the next great medical breakthrough makes it out of the research lab, the U.S. government supports medical research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
But the Trump administration has made significant cuts to the NIH that threaten the future of breast cancer research. Here’s a breakdown of the work NIH does and how these changes might affect future cancer treatments.
What the NIH does — and why it matters for breast cancer
The NIH, which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is the largest government institution for medical research in the world. It conducts and funds research on diseases, including how to cure or prevent them.
Clinical trials and research at universities, medical schools, and federal research institutes like the National Cancer Institute (NCI) rely on support from NIH. Most drugs are developed as a result of smaller discoveries and hundreds of research studies, many of which are NIH-funded. According to one analysis, all but two of the 356 drugs approved by the FDA between 2010 and 2019 were linked to NIH-funded research.
NIH-funded research has solved mysteries of how cancer cells grow, where cancer spreads, and what helps cancer survive. This research has also led to such breast cancer drugs as aromatase inhibitors like Arimidex, selective estrogen receptor downregulators (SERDs) like Orserdu, and Herceptin.
What’s been cut at the NIH?
The Trump administration cuts fall into three main areas: research funding, the organization itself, and universities — and all of them affect breast cancer care in some way.
The NIH has been canceling research grants in response to executive orders that roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Halts to health research for diverse populations could negatively affect breast cancer care and treatment for those populations, resulting in worse outcomes for LGBTQ+ people, Black people, immigrants, and more. This research also helps scientists understand how different factors affect cancer biology, risks, and outcomes, which benefits everyone.
Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office as secretary of HHS, he has laid off NIH employees and has said he wants to reduce the number of research institutes at the NIH. While the National Cancer Institute remains intact, breast cancer research goes beyond just the cancer itself. Cuts to research on mental health, air pollution, health disparities, and holistic medicine could impact how people navigate breast cancer risk and diagnoses.
The Trump administration has also been trying to cut funding to universities for research expenses like buildings, lab spaces, and more, which in turn creates financial shortfalls for medical schools and graduate schools. These schools are crucial for breast cancer care: They train the next generation of breast cancer doctors and researchers and they conduct groundbreaking cancer research. Training grants and university funding are “an investment in the future of cancer cures,” says Fumiko Chino, MD, a cancer researcher and assistant professor in breast radiation oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
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Some scientists worry that gutting the agency that has made the U.S. a leader in biomedical research will have widespread consequences on public health. “Nothing is going to substitute for the stability and the magnitude of NCI and NIH funding,” said Donald McDonnell, PhD, a professor in cancer biology at Duke University School of Medicine, in an interview with The Breastcancer.org Podcast.
To learn more about how NIH cuts are impacting your county, check out the Science & Community Impacts Mapping Project SCIMaP tool. And if you’re concerned about federal health research cuts, contact your elected officials to voice your concerns. To easily find your current elected officials (at the federal, state, and local levels) and their contact info, use Common Cause’s Find Your Representatives tool.