New York Times - Top Stories

Jonathan Mahler

In June, I set out to understand how the Trump administration’s draconian cuts to American science were affecting what may be the single greatest engine of medical progress ever built: the cancer-research system →

Jonathan Mahler

The administration has already canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer-related research grants and contracts and delayed payments for hundreds of millions more. And the president’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for a nearly 40 percent cut.

Jonathan Mahler

I spoke to more than 50 members of the medical-research establishment who were deeply concerned about what all of these cuts would mean for future breakthroughs — particularly because this happens to be one of the most fertile periods in the history of cancer research.

Jonathan Mahler

I focused in part on a scientist at UMass Chan Medical School. She is working on a promising new treatment for one of the most aggressive forms of pediatric brain cancer and has already had to suspend one of her most exciting studies.

Jonathan Mahler

My mother died of cancer in 2009 at age 71. The doctor who treated her told me that if she were diagnosed today, he might have been able to extend her life by as much as a year.