96-253 SPR
Updated March 3, 1998
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Cancer Research: Selected Federal Spending and
Morbidity and Mortality Statistics
Judith A. Johnson
Specialist in Life Sciences
Science Policy Research Division
The table below shows federal spending at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
for research on selected cancer sites. Most cancer research at NIH is conducted by the
National Cancer Institute (NCI); NCI amounts are indicated in parenthesis (non-add). The
estimate for FY1999 is based on the President's request.
Table 1. NIH Research Funding On Selected Cancer Sites
$ in millions; NCI portion of NIH total is shown in parenthesis
FY1994
FY1995
FY1996
FY1997
FY1998
FY1999
Cancer
Actual
Actual
Actual
Actual
Estimate
Estimate
Breast
$306.1
$363.9
$381.9
$411.2
$432.8
$457.9
(267.6)
(308.7)
(317.5)
(332.0)
(348.6)
(366.0)
Cervical
47.6
53.9
60.2
65.2
68.1
72.0
(42.3)
(45.5)
(51.6)
(55.8)
(58.0)
(61.2)
Colo-rectal
87.7
102.4
105.5
123.4
130.0
141.3
(83.1)
(96.5)
(98.0)
(103.2)
(109.0)
(117.0)
Lung
120.6
123.2
127.8
143.4
150.6
161.3
(106.4)
(113.9)
(119.4)
(132.4)
(139.0)
(149.0)
Ovarian
36.9
39.1
42.2
48.0
51.0
54.1
(33.5)
(33.9)
(38.5)
(41.7)
(44.2)
(46.8)
Prostate
69.2
85.5
92.7
104.8
113.6
122.1
(56.1)
(64.3)
(71.7)
(82.3)
(89.5)
(96.0)
Uterine
8.9
13.6
14.0
15.8
16.7
17.6
(7.2)
(7.7)
(8.1)
(8.1)
(8.3)
(8.5)
NIH CA Total
$2,345.7
$2,434.3
$2,570.6
$2,760.7
$2,941.2
$3,231.8
(NCI Total)
(2,076.2)
(2,130.3)
(2,254.9)
(2,389.1)
(2,547.3)
(2,776.3)
Source: NIH budget office, 3/3/98; and, NCI budget office, 2/5/98. Amounts for the cancer sites do not
add up to the totals. In addition to funding research on many other cancer sites, NIH supports basic cancer
research on prevention, nutrition, epidemiology, carcinogenesis, tumor biology, immunology, as well as
research on diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of cancer patients.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress
CRS-2
In recent years the Department of Defense (DoD) has received funding for breast
cancer research from Congress: FY1992, $25 million; FY1993, $210 million; FY1994, $25
million; FY1995, $150 million; FY1996, $100 million; and FY1997, $100 million for the
Army-managed peer-reviewed breast cancer research program, $12.5 million for three
other DoD breast cancer projects, and $25 million for a Defense Health program on breast
cancer (non-research). Therefore the total amount provided for breast cancer programs
in FY1997 at DoD was $137.5 million. Congress also provided a total of $45 million for
prostate cancer research in the FY1997 DoD appropriation: $38 million for a prostate
cancer peer-reviewed research program and $7 million for prostate cancer research at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. The FY1998 DoD appropriation
provides $135 million for the peer-reviewed breast cancer research program and $25
million for breast cancer screening as well as $40 million for prostate cancer research and
$5 million for prostate cancer diagnostic imaging. For more information, see CRS Report
96-124, Breast Cancer Research, and CRS Report 97-783, Prostate Cancer.
The following table gives estimates for the number of new cancer cases and deaths
expected in 1998 for selected sites. Because a comprehensive national cancer registry
does not exist in the United States, there is no way of determining the exact number of
new cancer cases diagnosed each year.1 The estimates of new cancer cases shown in the
table below are based on incidence rates obtained from NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology
and End Results (SEER) program. The SEER program collects cancer data from
designated population-based cancer registries in various areas in the United States. The
geographic areas covered by the SEER program represent about 10% of the U.S.
population. The areas have been selected to provide a subset which represents the many
diverse groups in the U.S. population.
Table 2. Estimated New Cancer Cases and Deaths
Selected Sites — U.S. 1998a
Cancer New Cases Deaths
Breast (female) 178,700 43,500
Cervical 13,700 4,900
Colo-rectal 131,600 56,500
Lung 171,500 160,100
Ovarian 25,400 14,500
Prostate 184,500 39,200
Uterine 36,100 6,300
All Cancer Sites 1,228,600 564,800
a Landis, S.H., et al. Cancer Statistics, 1998. CA — A Cancer
Journal for Clinicians, v. 48, Jan./Feb. 1998. pp. 6-29.
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1 The Cancer Registries Amendment Act (P.L. 102-515), enacted on Oct. 24, 1992, C
authorized $30 million per year for 4 years to organize a national system of statewide cancer
registries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spent an estimated $22.3 million
on this program in FY1997; FY1998 funding is at the same level. In FY1997, CDC provided
grants to 48 states and D.C. The program will eventually collect incidence data on 93% of the U.S.
population.