Cancer research funding gets small increases, but not doubled

Back in 2007,  Barack Obama pledged to double federal funding for cancer research in five years. But so far in his presidency, that doesn"t seem to be happening.

Funding for the National Cancer Institute was hovering around $4.8 billion a year before Obama took office. In the president"s most recent budget, the National Cancer Institute was budgeted for $5.196 billion.

To be sure, Obama made the promise before it was clear the economy was taking a historic turn for the worse. And the National Cancer Institute did get an additional $1.3 billion over two years from the stimulus.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent us this statement when we asked about funding for the National Cancer Institute: "While budgets remain tight in these difficult economic times, funding for cancer research at NIH and NCI has increased ...  In the time between now and 2015, HHS will continue to work with appropriators in Congress to increase funding for cancer research."

We will examine this promise again if the funding picture appears to change significantly. But for now, we rate this Promise Broken.