Lawler Kills Hope for Cancer Cures

Subj: Lawler Kills Hope for Cancer Cures

Hope for future cancer cures have been dashed by Mr. Lawler.

Congressman Lawler’s support for slashing cancer research funding is a reckless betrayal of Americans fighting for their lives and for families clinging to hope. As an article in the September 14, 2025 NYTimes makes clear, cancer research is not just a budget line. Rather it’s a lifeline. A lifeline that has steadily transformed medicine and extended millions of lives since President Nixon declared the "war on cancer" by signing the National Cancer Act in 1971 . The federal government’s sustained investment has driven the five-year cancer survival rate from 49 percent in the 1970s to 68 percent today—proof that every dollar spent yields real, lifesaving progress.

My wife may have been saved by this research.

But the Lawler supported cuts are already having devastating effects. Scientists like Dr. Rachael Sirianni, who leads groundbreaking research on deadly pediatric brain cancer, now face both frozen budgets and the loss of irreplaceable staff. Labs across the nation have been forced to halt promising studies and lay off highly trained researchers. Research institutions have seen their existing grant funding abruptly suspended or canceled, with no warning or explanation. The impact has a long term ripple effect. Disrupted federal support, forced furloughs and rescinded offers to graduate students, jeopardizes a generation of future scientists.

Such recklessness will delay or destroy work on treatments that might have saved lives—the next cancer drug, the earlier blood test, the more tolerable and effective therapy. Cancer research’s benefits have also yielded discoveries that led to treatments for HIV and COVID-19.

Mr. Lawler, RFK Jr., and the Trump administration are the supporters of these heartless cuts and they ignore the bipartisan consensus that has fueled decades of discovery. America’s leadership in biomedical science took generations to build. Dismantling it out of political revenge will cost lives and cede global leadership.

The victims are not political opponents. The victims are your family and friends.

My sister may have been saved by this research.

Lawler and his MAGA allies attack science believing it breeds liberal thinking. If Lawler cared about people he would focus on saving lives.

Everyone, regardless of politics, is affected by cancer.

Mark A. Lieberman
Yorktown, NY