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 National Institutes of Health (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 like Herceptin and immune checkpoint inhibitors.
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 upcoming cuts to current research funding and plans unveiled in the president’s fiscal year 2026 budget request would slash NIH and other critical programs, impeding future progress to end breast cancer.
NBCC advocates know firsthand that science saves lives. Join NBCC and other organizations across the academic, scientific, and medical research worlds to protect American science and innovation. Contact your elected officials and demand they protect the integrity of science and the American institutions that power it.
I was diagnosed with stage 2b breast cancer at just 38 years old. More than 16 years later, I’m alive because of treatments—surgery, dose-dense chemotherapy, radiation, and adjuvant tamoxifen—that were developed and refined through decades of NIH-funded research. Clinical trials led by the NCI helped determine the safest and most effective doses, drug combinations, and treatment schedules.
Without that public investment, I wouldn’t be here today. If funding is cut now, future patients may lose the chance for the same life-saving breakthroughs.
With millions of people already facing uncertainty about their healthcare access, including hundreds of thousands of Mainers like me, the idea of undoing decades of lifesaving scientific and medical research feels like a slap in the face.
I worked with hundreds of breast cancer patients before being diagnosed myself. Every single one of us has benefited from the scientific research Congress is considering cutting. We cannot go back.
I am a breast cancer survivor. 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.
[As a breast cancer] patient, I attended NBCC’s Project LEAD and heard about an innovative immunotherapy clinical trial at the NIH, which I was able to join. Long story short, I became the first breast cancer patient treated using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Scans soon showed no evidence of cancer.
To this day I remain the only breast cancer patient to have had this positive response. My doctor calls me her golden guinea pig.
My medical story is, for now, unique. But it won’t be forever.
And that’s why I continue to do what I do. I’m so proud to have had the opportunity to represent NBCC in research spaces like the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (DOD BCRP), and on Capitol Hill, fighting for policy that matters.
In 2018 I learned I was living with metastatic breast cancer. I decided I would use whatever time I had to try to make a difference for people who would come after me.
At the time of my diagnosis, my daughter Emma worried that I wouldn’t be alive to see her become a mother. She worried her future children wouldn’t remember me as the person who read stories, played with them, and watched them grow…Six years later, I’m still here… I am so grateful for the time I am able to spend with [my family].
I’m alive because NBCC fought for—and continues to fight for—the DOD BCRP, which supported the research that led to my current treatment.
This issue is very critical and timely for me as I prepare to travel to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at the end of this month in hopes of accessing a clinical trial to help stabilize my disease.
I am reliant on research and innovative treatments to extend and preserve my quality of life, especially as a person living with metastatic lobular breast cancer. Slashing funds for research almost certainly means studies for my type will most likely be among the first cuts.
I will die of metastatic breast cancer prematurely anyway unless a cure is found, but it will happen even more expeditiously without the research funds necessary to achieve NBCC’s mission to end breast cancer.
I was diagnosed with HER2+ metastatic inflammatory breast cancer in 2016. By 2020, I had progressed on my fifth treatment protocol. I was running out of options.
Thanks to the dedication of scientists, a new drug called Enhertu was FDA-approved just a few months prior to my needing a new treatment. Thanks to research, I am not only still here, but free of progression ever since.
Without the NIH’s involvement in the development of Herceptin (component of Enhertu) I probably would not have seen my oldest graduate from college or my youngest find the partner she deserves, or helped my sister through the death of our father.
Thanks to research I can love every day and live with metastatic disease, at least until I need that next breakthrough.
