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Running head: UNDER FUNDED CANCERS

Under Funded Cancers: A Review of Literature

Juan Miranda
University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

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In this Literature review cancer funding will be analyzed for, major differences in money
collected or distributed throughout the whole cancer research system. The questions that are
going to be answered are what most affects cancer funding and whom are the ones responsible?
What cancers are the most underfunded and why? In what ways does government help cancer
funding and how is it decided as to how much they give to a specific cancer? And, in what way is
money funded and how can it affect the cancer patients? These questions will be answered
through primary research, statistics and a discussion with a cancer survivor over his ordeal with
cancer and its financial burden. Once finished the results were astounding. Through the research
it was found that many different factors such as funding source, type of funding and the
distributor, result in the underfunding of specific cancers such as kidney cancer. This caused
cancers to get multiple millions of dollars less than others such as breast cancer. This in turn can
leading to less progress on a cure and leaving some patients with a great financial burden.

Introduction
Today many people are effected by the lack for funding and cancer research. Most of all,
cancer patients are the ones affected. These individuals fight day in and day out in order to see
the light of day again surrounded by loved ones of which are doing all things possible, so they
can help them. The loved ones are also affected due to the fact that most of them are devoting
most of their time and money so that their ill can be helped in any way shape or form. The
reasons most individuals with cancer have a hard time is because some types of cancers dont get
as much funding and research as others. This can be caused by the mass popularity of other
cancers of which receive huge amounts of donations and uneven government funding; leaving
other cancers in the dark.

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1. What most affects cancer funding and whom are the ones responsible?
2. What cancers are the most underfunded and why?
3. In what ways does government help cancer funding and how is it decided as to
how much they give to a specific cancer?
4. In what way is money funded and how can it affect the cancer patients?
What most affects cancer funding and whom are the ones responsible?
When money is provided for cancer there are many forms of funding. The two most
prominent forms are grants and donations. When cancer research is given a grant that money
comes from the government. This form of income from the government most affects cancer and
where the money goes, and money is not given to cancer as a whole. The government picks
which it wishes to fund, as far as types of cancer fields. This can turn out to be negative, such so
that news stations are weighing in on the issue saying, a new report suggests that cancer could
soon surpass heart disease as the nations leading killer unless the government provides more
funding for research into the disease, according to Med Page Today (Fox News, 2013), showing
that this issue is serious. This lack of funding causes discrepancies in funding fields of cancer
and research; where one cancer receives more funding then another causing a lack of research in
that field. Making progress of that field slow to finding a cure and or treatment. The other form
of funding which also has an effect on cancer funding is donations. Donations are where an
individual gives a sum of their money to a field they want. In donations an individual can be
influenced by many things, a couple of these are, ill family members with that cancer, or by how
the cancer field is displayed and popularized though mass media.
What cancers are the most underfunded and why?
The most underfunded cancer now is kidney cancer with only 8 grants totaling,
1,864,886. This funding is dramatically lower than most other cancers. For instance lets take

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breast cancer that gets 198 grants totaling $83,493,483. Compared to breast cancer kidney cancer
gets a lot less and why this is can be attributed to many things. Some of these things are, how
many people have that form of cancer and what researchers want to work on. This can lead to
inferior research and development of a cure for the minority, which in this case the kidney cancer
group.
In what ways does government help cancer funding and how is it decided as
to how much they give to a specific cancer?
As previously researched, government funding gives cancer researchers a lot of grants,
but all of that money is not distributed evenly throughout the cancer fields due to researchers
putting the money in to where they feel they want to research. In the year of 2015 only, many
grants have been given to cancer fields, approximately 816 grants totaling $441,428,104 dollars
(American Cancer Society, 2015) (Table 1). All this money is for the good of cancer research, but
it is not fair funding from the government, because many fields such as kidney cancer only
received 8 grants totaling $4,320,024, where as a field such as breast cancer received 198 grants
totaling $110,303,170, causing a huge discrepancy between two fields of cancer which both need
a cure (American Cancer Society, 2015) (Table 1). Yes there are 237 grants of which are given to
cancer in general which total $95,816,632, but that still does not alleviate the discrepancies of the
funding and in not doing so is affecting the less funded fields. (American Cancer Society, 2015)
(Table 1).
Table 1 (American Cancer Society, 2015)
Current Grants by Cancer Type
As of August 1, 2015
Cancer Type

Number of Grants involving Cancer Type**

Funded Amount ($)

Specific Amount ($)

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Brain Cancer
Breast Cancer
Cervical Cancer
Colon and Rectal Cancer
Head and Neck Cancer
Kidney Cancer
Leukemia/Leukaemia
Liver Cancer
Lung Cancer
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Ovarian Cancer
Pancreatic Cancer
Prostate Cancer
Skin Cancer
Thyroid Cancer
Other Cancer Types
Applies to all cancers
Grand Total
Included in the above projects, which
are listed by cancer site, are projects
that deal with selected areas of cancer
research.
Childhood Cancer
Disparities
Environmental Factors

47
198
19
101
18
8
66
29
97
39
46
34
76
63
15
204
237
816
Number of Grants**

27,611,500
110,303,170
8,613,500
56,286,600
11,373,250
4,320,024
36,294,500
15,563,190
51,237,624
22,448,250
26,174,250
19,310,000
44,775,776
34,480,750
13,595,000
98,788,466
95,816,632
Funded Amount ($)

35
76
34

17,968,700
65,158,857
18,752,750

In what way is money funded and how can it affect the cancer patients?
As previously researched, when you think of cancer, the common person will think about,
pink, donations and charity events. Not all types of cancers have that attention and many people
suffer because of it, due to the bias. An example of this is breast cancer and how it is the main
cancer to have events (charity) and prominent donations due to its publicity. Once a metric has
been chosen, improved funding allocation can be achieved by distributing resources more
equitably according to this metric (Carter, A. R., & Nguyen, C. N. 2012), this statement shows
that cancer research money should be distributed equally and not based on its popularity. Due to
this many cancers, such as kidney cancer fall behind in funding due to it not being well known to
the public. If money is to be distributed evenly, some cancers will get more money than ever
before due to having been in the dark before because of being overshadowed by other popular
cancers.

18,564,315
83,493,483
3,595,880
32,671,550
5,772,393
1,864,886
23,369,310
8,469,843
29,448,142
13,161,975
15,075,145
9,230,420
28,441,304
20,454,005
11,585,400
47,238,731
88,991,322
441,428,104

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In these cases, people have to use their voice in order to attempt to get the recognition for
their underfunded cancer field. Some people say others should,
Write a letter to the editor. Editorial pages are often the most widely read
sections of the newspaper. Although letters to the editor are usually in response to
a recent story, letter, or current event, publications often will print general
commentary letters. Share a personal story or anecdote about how cancer research
has helped to improve the quality of life of your patients (Kent, J. 2008)
This shows that some people already felt the need to voice their opinions on the matter.
As previously researched, money and research go hand in hand. If some fields of cancer
are not as funded as well as others it can cause a lack of capability for researchers to find
treatments/ cures. As once stated kidney cancer is the least funded cancer and due to this their
patients are waiting more for treatment and ultimately for a cure. This does not only affect the
patient it affects the family as how they have to take more money out of their pockets for
medicine of which is not sufficiently funded by government inevitably, causing the patient and
potentially their relatives, to pay, the average U.S. family makes $52,000 annually. Cancer
drugs can easily cost a $120,000 a year. Out-of-pocket expenses for the insured can run $25,000
to $30,000 more than half of a typical family's income (Whitehead, 2015), showing that the
cost of medicine is outrageous and unaffordable for cancer patients. Doctors have even said that,
"A lot of my patients cry they're frustrated," says Dr. Ayalew Tefferi, a hematologist at the
Mayo Clinic. "Many of them spend their life savings on cancer drugs and end up being bankrupt"
(Whitehead, 2015), ultimately showing the toll it takes on the patient and their wallet. Recently I
have had the chance to speak with a cancer survivor named Felipe Gutierrez. When witnessing
Felipe Gutierrez going through his ordeal with cancer and every once and a while he would

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worry what would happen to him and if they would be able to give him his treatment. Also when
speaking with this individual he had told me that, when I was undergoing chemotherapy times
were tough not only physically but financially. There were times when I was uncovered by my
insurance so they would not administer my chemotherapy which I needed. I am also now in debt
over 100,000 because of all the therapy cost from 7,000 every chemo and 1,300 dollar shots.
This shows that if not covered you are not given treatment that you need to survive. When
patients have a cancer such as breast cancer, yes they are also having to take money out of your
pocket to buy medicine but its not as much of a burden because the government has funded that
field sufficiently/insured you better than others.
Graph 1

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Some organizations spend more on other cancers because they wish/know they can make
money off them. This is proven when Dennis Thompson Jr asked Margaret K. Offermann, MD,
PhD, Funding Research: Why Is the Money Going There? Where he replied,
Whether there's money to be made. Private pharmaceutical and medical
research companies tend to spend research money on more common cancers. That
way, there are more patients to help them recoup their investment. This isn't
necessarily a bad thing, as innovation can lead to big advances. "Sometimes you'll
have two different cancers sharing the same [messed-up] pathway," Offermann
says. "In that case, the commercial entity is more likely to go after the pathway
rather than the specific types of cancer. That makes it more worth their
while.(Thompson, 2010)
This in turn shows how not only are some cancers underfunded but, are in that condition due to
organizations appeal to other, more common cancers, in order to gain as much money as
possible. (Thompson, 2010). That is not the only reason, another reason for more funding in a
specific cancer is,
Whether research into the cancer can provide widespread scientific
rewards. Some of the really rare cancers have ended up providing insights into
things that are relevant to more common cancers," Offermann says, noting that the
retinoblastoma gene the first gene to be identified as a tumor suppressor
was discovered in a rare eye cancer of children. (Thompson, 2010)
Showing that organizations are also more worried on how they can be rewarded, over who needs
treatment and how fast and when.

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Conclusion
Over all this uneven distribution of money affects many patients. This form of funding
needs to be halted and revamped so that others that with less likely cancers get as much funding
as the more populated areas, so that they get evenly cared for. This is a problem because it affects
the cancer patients. This problem is and will keep on affecting cancer until money is evenly
distributed. Cancer patients should all have an even chance to find a cure.

References
American Cancer Society. (2015, August 1). Current grants by cancer type. Retrieved November
5, 2015, from American Cancer Society website:
http://www.cancer.org/research/currentlyfundedcancerresearch/grants-by-cancer-type

Carter, A. R., & Nguyen, C. N. (2012). A comparison of cancer burden and research spending
reveals discrepancies in the distribution of research funding. BMC Public Health, 12(1), 526537. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12-526

Chan, K. K., Siu, E., Mozessohn, L., & Cheung, M. C. (2013). Publication patterns of cancer
cost-effectiveness studies presented at major conferences. Current Oncology, 20(6), 319-325.
doi:10.3747/co.20.1438

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Fox News. (2013, September 18). Lack of government funding could make cancer the top killer
in u.s, report says. Retrieved November 5, 2015, from Fox News website:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/18/lack-government-funding-could-make-cancer-topkiller-in-us-report-says.html

Kent, J. (2008). Use your voice to appeal for cancer research funding. ONS Connect, 23(12), 22.
Printz, C. (2013). Is cancer research too conservative?. Cancer (0008543X), 119(9), 1605-1606.
doi:10.1002/cncr.28122

Shah, K. K., Sussex, J., & Hernandez-Villafuerte, K. (2015). Government and charity funding of
cancer research: public preferences and choices. Health Research Policy & Systems, 13(1), 1-14.
doi:10.1186/s12961-015-0027-6

Thompson, D., Jr. (n.d.). Cancer research: Where the funding goes. Retrieved February 9, 2010,
from everydayhealth website: http://www.everydayhealth.com/cancer/cancer-research-wherefunding-goes.aspx

Whitehead, N. (2015, July 23). Doctors press for action to lower 'unsustainable' prices for cancer
drugs. Retrieved November 5, 2015, from NPR website: http://www.npr.org/sections/healthshots/2015/07/23/425387299/doctors-press-for-action-to-lower-unsustainable-prices-for-cancerdrug

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