On October 24, 2025, NBCC’s Chief Policy Officer Melanie Wyne delivered the following remarks at the Democratic Women’s Caucus Shadow Field Hearing on Research Funding Cuts in Raleigh, NC.
Thank you, Congresswoman Ross, and members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, for the opportunity to testify about the effects of the Trump Administration’s cuts to medical research funding on breast cancer patients.
I am Melanie Wyne, a nine-year breast cancer survivor and Chief Policy Officer of the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC). I owe my life and my future to scientific innovation and medical research.
Thankfully, I had access to the latest effective and proven therapies when facing my breast cancer diagnosis. And thanks to the work of NBCC and research institutions nationwide, we are making remarkable progress on ending this disease for good…progress that is threatened unless Congress acts to save science.
My testimony is on behalf of hundreds of member organizations and thousands of individual members of NBCC, representing diverse perspectives from across the country.
NBCC is a grassroots organization dedicated to ending breast cancer through action and advocacy. Since its founding in 1991, NBCC has been guided by three primary goals: to increase federal funding for meaningful breast cancer research and collaborate with the scientific community to implement new models of research; improve access to high-quality evidence-based health care and breast cancer clinical trials for all women and men, and expand the influence of breast cancer advocates wherever breast cancer decisions are made.
Over 4.3 million women and men are living with a past breast cancer diagnosis in this country today. This year, more than 42,000 women and more than 500 men will die of the disease. We still do not know how to prevent breast cancer, how to ensure people don’t die from it, or how to end it. It is an incredibly complex disease. We simply cannot afford to walk away from medical research that will someday answer these questions.
Over the years, NBCC and our advocates have come up against many barriers, but today’s challenges are unprecedented. Evidence-based health care and science are under attack. Federal funding cuts at National Institutes of Health (NIH) have led to significant layoffs and hiring freezes, impacting oncology research and biomedical progress in the US. Funding terminations have already canceled numerous clinical trials, including those for cancer and other diseases, potentially delaying or stopping new treatments for patients
The programs, policies, and funding that provide care to breast cancer patients, ensure health coverage, and fund lifesaving research face significant cuts. Many people will suffer. Some will die. Treatments and potential breakthroughs will be set back for years and perhaps even decades.
Nearly every person in the US who has been treated for breast cancer in the past few decades has benefited from federal investment in medical research.
Thanks to research, we now have targeted therapies for specific types of breast cancer, like HER2-positive, BRCA-related, and some triple-negative cancers.
Studies supported by the NIH helped define and establish hormone therapy for ER-positive breast cancer, still the most common subtype, and laid the scientific foundation for later advances . And thanks to these developments, fewer women and men are dying from breast cancer every year. This progress is the direct result of decades of federally funded basic research and clinical trials that uncovered the biology of breast cancer, identified key genetic drivers, and tested safer and more effective treatments, transforming what was once a one-size-fits-all approach into more personalized, life-saving care.
But cuts to current research funding plans unveiled in the president’s fiscal year 2026 budget request and announced plans to rescind medical research funding would slash NIH and other critical programs, impeding future pathways to end breast cancer. Congress must do everything in its power to put an end to this unprecedented erosion of scientific progress.
Since its inception, NBCC has championed biomedical research. In fact, the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (DOD BCRP) was created in 1992 because of NBCC’s “$300 Million More” campaign to increase federal funding for breast cancer research. Due to NBCC’s efforts, Congress appropriated $210 million in the DOD research and development budget for a breast cancer peer-reviewed research program administered by the Department of the Army.
As a result of NBCC’s grassroots advocacy and the DOD BCRP’s demonstrated success, Congress has appropriated funding for it each year since, for a total of nearly $4.5 billion.
The DOD BCRP has produced extraordinary results. From new methods of extracting breast cancer cells at their earliest stages, to unprecedented research into gene/environmental interaction to quality-of-life issues, the DOD BCRP leads the way in generating new approaches to breast cancer prevention and treatment.
It has produced fascinating insights into the biology of breast cancer and has directly impacted lives through the research it has funded, such as the foundational work that led to the development of the innovative drug Herceptin and CDK 4/6 inhibitors, which have been shown to extend overall survival and have positively impacted the lives of millions.
The National Breast Cancer Coalition is strongly committed to the DOD BCRP in every aspect, as we genuinely believe it is one of our best chances for ending breast cancer. Our advocates work tirelessly, every year, to ensure the program is funded at the fullest level. Even in the face of current challenges, we will continue to work to protect and expand funding for the program now and into the future.
As NBCC advocate Kaitlyn Turner from Apex, NC says:
I’m a great example of the benefits of the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program because that program has brought out a lot of research on triple-negative breast cancer. I was just able to celebrate five years cancer-free because of that research.
As Mandy Bryant, an advocate living with metastatic breast cancer in Morehead City, NC told Congress:
Any legislation that supports breast cancer supports not only women …[but is also] very personal. My children’s father (my late husband) passed away from cancer. My children need their mom (me) and they need me to live!!! The Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program started by NBCC has made great strides in extending survival for metastatic breast cancer patients but there is no cure. They need the support to include the funding to move forward.
NBCC Alaska advocate Meadow Riedel shares that:
Science has mattered in every part of my breast cancer journey.
I was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma in 2022. Advances in treatment give me the best chance at a long life, and each time there is a new discovery in treatment a new weapon is added to my arsenal.
But science isn’t abstract — it’s personal. That’s why in 2024, my dear friend Tami and I traveled to Washington, D.C. with the National Breast Cancer Coalition to advocate for more funding to end breast cancer. Tami was living with metastatic disease, yet she focused on lifting me up and teaching me not to fear cancer.
Eight months after making that trip, we lost Tami to breast cancer.
Science prolonged Tami’s life and gave her more time with her children, husband, and friends. Science is our only hope to ensure our children don’t face this disease in their lifetimes.
This is why I advocate for research funding and why I will never stop demanding that elected leaders protect it.
Federally funded scientific and medical research drives innovation that saves lives and improves health outcomes. And brings economic benefit to communities everywhere. Cutting research not only results in lost lives, but it also means many fewer jobs in research and medical institutions around the country.
I urge you to stand with millions of breast cancer advocates and demand that Congress oppose science and research cuts or any legislative package that targets medical research.
Thank you again for the opportunity to submit testimony and for giving hope to all women and their families, especially to the more than 3 million women and men in the United States living with a past diagnosis of breast cancer and all those who share in our mission to end breast cancer.
