Good for Cancer

What do I know about cancer? I’m no doctor or scientist.

I know that I had cancer, and now I don’t—thanks to decades of cancer research and dedicated public health efforts, a diverse team of highly qualified medical professionals, and health care coverage fought for by my union.

With my diagnosis, I began to understand how many patients receive treatment every day, how many survivors are out there, how many have lost loved ones to it. It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t been up against its pain.

No one is for cancer.

The Trump Administration, however, is challenging this easy absolute. It is making a mess of moves that work against cancer awareness and research, against cancer prevention, and against cancer cures and treatment access.

• This week CNN reported that the Pentagon purged pages from its website related to raising cancer awareness. This included an article on breast cancer because, it seems…the content was deemed DEI.

• Announced cuts to the National Institutes of Health look to mean delays to or abandonment of promising cancer research projects at institutions nationwide, including one at Michigan State for the study of cancer and other diseases.

• At UMass Chan Medical School, a group working on brain cancer in children has had to stop most experimental research.

• NIH cuts aren’t just stopping research; they are cutting off treatment. Journalist Jon Rauch posted on Bluesky about a patient who drove hours to chemotherapy only to find it was “canceled due to NIH cuts. Clinical trial ended midstream. No treatment, no restart, no plan, no information.”

• In December, perhaps as a kind of inaugural gift, GOP members of Congress cut some spending on pediatric cancer from the budget bill.

• As part of efforts to “punish Columbia University for its approach to protests against the war in Gaza,” Trump, Musk & Co. terminated a $5 million grant to a comprehensive cancer center that conducts research and treats patients.

• DOGE chaos at the Veterans Administration is interrupting cancer care for veterans, the New York Times reports.

• Installing anti-vaxxer RFK, Jr. at Health and Human Services, Trump has put at risk life-saving vaccines, including mRNA vaccines. Clinical trials for mRNA cancer vaccines “have shown dramatic results,” but funding is now in question. Existing vaccines like that for HPV, which can prevent 90% of cancers related to the virus, are threatened by anti-science appointments.

• The Environmental Protection Agency announced this week it will close its scientific research office and fire over 1,000 experts who “help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants.” New EPA head Lee Zeldin, an anti-environmentalist, has said to expect EPA spending will be slashed by 65%.

• Trump is coming for public transportation projects such as Manhattan’s congestion pricing program and subway funds, projects that cut pollution-causing traffic and enable more people to get out of cars. Car dependence means more air pollution and more sedentary lives, contributors to cancer.
• Musk’s DOGE has the USDA cutting $1 billion in funding allowing schools and food banks to provide healthy local foods to families. This, along with the GOP budget, expected to cut SNAP benefits, will leave more kids hungry and harm child nutrition, though good nutrition helps prevent cancer.
• The administration plans to overturn efforts to slow the acceleration of catastrophes like wildfires, the pollution from which can cause various cancers. Its work against climate change mitigation means more of all kinds of climate disasters will add to pollution and interrupt cancer care.
• In Louisiana, Trump’s DOJ is dropping a lawsuit to protect residents breathing in pollutants from synthetic rubber in the state’s "Cancer Alley."
• Cuts to Medicaid, which the GOP budget necessitates, would affect some of the most vulnerable cancer patients. The American Cancer Society reports that 1 in 10 adults with cancer rely on Medicaid and one-third of children diagnosed with cancer for the first time depend on Medicaid or CHIPS.
• Trump’s own voters will be deeply hurt: 20 million Republicans are on Medicaid. Many states that went for Trump in 2024 will be hard hit. Four of the five states with the highest cancer rates are red: KY, IA, WV, and LA.

The invitation to a young cancer survivor to Trump’s recent Address to Congress may lead some to believe he supports preventing, treating, and curing cancer. But his administration’s activity over the past months, only some of which I’ve listed, show otherwise. These actions are not good for humans; they’re good for cancer.

Spread the word and let your representatives know that you don’t support this degradation of federal health, science, food, energy, transit, and environmental programs and rules that help prevent, fight, and treat cancer and other diseases.

If the Trump Administration continues on in this way, more Americans are likely to receive a dreaded diagnosis. And fewer patients will get to say what I’m able to say: I had cancer, and now I don’t.