The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Denounces Federal Actions that Threaten Cancer Patients

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As the nation's largest organization serving the critical needs of blood cancer patients, we are alarmed by recent actions that can only be described as a profound threat to the health of cancer patients. 

We encourage the Administration to partner with patients, clinicians, and researchers to understand and appreciate the full impact its actions have on patients and healthcare infrastructure. Specifically, we call on the Administration to reinstate funding for lifesaving research, to restore comprehensive health information and data, and to ensure patients can access affordable care.  In short: we urge the Administration to stop taking actions that risk great harm to patients.

The hastily announced cuts to NIH's lifesaving health research will be felt swiftly and will reverberate for generations. These cuts will be catastrophic to patients, our nation's worldwide position as a leader in research, and to the future progress of research itself. Brinkmanship tactics may work in some arenas, but they are irresponsible and dangerous when applied to lifesaving healthcare and research. This current course threatens the lives of some of the most vulnerable patients.

The only way to achieve better cancer treatments is through consistent, robust funding for science – through the public sector, academia, industry and nonprofits. These cuts not only jeopardize long-term progress towards better treatments, but they also threaten the health of patients who are receiving care today, including patients who are enrolled in clinical trials.  

Notably, these cuts are only the latest in a series of recent actions that threaten cancer patients and others facing serious health conditions, including:

• Proposals that would reduce access to Medicaid & CHIP, a program that ensures more than 70 million Americans – including half of U.S. children – can access affordable healthcare
• Spending freezes that have disrupted cancer research and community health programs 
• A federal health communications blackout that has disrupted research grantmaking, as well as the medical community's ability to monitor and study diseases
• Deletions of references to diversity and health equity on federal health websites, including removal of guidance on how to improve the diversity of clinical trials
• Steps to prevent the Consumer Financial Protect Bureau from enforcing recent federal protections that prevent medical debt from appearing on the credit reports of an estimated 15 million Americans

These actions are confusing, and many cancer patients and families are – justifiably – frightened.

As our organization said just over a week ago, any decisions made by the government that affects the country's health should be made carefully and deliberately. As a nonpartisan advocacy organization, we welcome dialogue with the Administration on ways to thoughtfully advance cancer research, improve healthcare and save and extend patients' lives.

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SOURCE The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS)