Eastern Kentucky has some of the highest rates of cancer in the United States. The National Cancer Institute, under the Trump Administration, has terminated funds nationwide for research to fight cancer, expand care, and train new oncologists.
Under the President's budget proposal, the institute would see a 39% reduction in research grants and a 45% cut in funds to research centers.
Dr. Mark Evers is the director of the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky.
In an interview with WEKU, he said he doesn't foresee these severe cuts happening, but if they do it will cause some serious problems.
“If you think about it, a 40% cut in our federal funding, about 60% of our funding, as I've delineated, is from federal funding, so that would take a huge chunk out of our budget.”
Evers said those cuts would limit some of their capabilities.
“Our ability to do cutting-edge clinical trials here at the Markey Cancer Center would be impacted, screening efforts that have been very effective over the past decade would be impacted as well.”
He said it would limit how much they could work with their 20 affiliates across the state.
