Cancer Funding Disparities and the Impact on Care

At ASCO 2025, Suneel Kamath, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, presented an analysis of federal cancer research funding disparities and their ripple effects on care delivery and outcomes. The study examined National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) funding across 13 cancer types from 2013 to 2022, comparing these figures to cancer incidence, mortality, and the number of clinical trials.

The findings revealed a striking mismatch: while funding closely tracked cancer incidence (Pearson correlation coefficient [PCC] of 0.85), it showed weak alignment with mortality (PCC of 0.36), meaning that cancers that claim more lives often receive less federal support.

Breast, lung, and prostate cancers received the most combined funding at $8.36 billion, $3.83 billion, and $3.61 billion, respectively, while uterine, cervical, and hepatobiliary cancers received the least, with uterine cancer at just $435 million.

Particularly concerning was the finding that cancers with higher incidence among Black populations, such as colorectal, liver, and uterine cancers, were disproportionately underfunded. These findings also show that cancers receiving less federal support also had fewer clinical trials (PCC of 0.76), limiting future treatment advances and perpetuating poor outcomes in already underserved populations.

“One [takeaway] is to be aware, especially for people of these communities, that these seemingly benign symptoms actually might be a sign of something more serious,” explains Kamath.

In the interview with Targeted Oncology^TM, Kamath further emphasizes that these disparities highlight deeper structural barriers within the healthcare system. Kamath urges oncologists to maintain a higher level of suspicion for serious illness in these populations and to challenge assumptions that delay care.

“A lot of cancer centers have a lot of resources to bridge the gap. For people coming from lower socioeconomic communities and whatnot, and I think it is upon us to be aware of those and to tap into those a lot more to help people overcome those access to care issues. Transportation is often a big one, finding appointment times that are convenient for people to be able to access care, maybe taking a little extra time to build that trust and have people trust in the healthcare system such that people are comfortable with accessing care more so,” he says.

“I think if we can overcome barriers like that, a lot more people are able to access and participate in care, and when that happens, that is when we achieve better outcomes for those patients,” he adds.