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Recent Global Crises Disrupt Cancer Research

March 21, 2022

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The recent healthcare crisis differed from earlier emergencies because it has spread to impact most industries and multiple financial systems around the world. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued for more than two years, countries around the world struggled to keep their healthcare systems working, draft new social distancing rules, and provide their people with useful vaccines and treatments. Although this unprecedented crisis seems to be almost over now, another emergency has already begun. The conflict in Ukraine is growing to become yet another global crisis, and it also has the potential to impact multiple industries.

According to a recent study, multiple problems caused by the COVID-19 crisis impacted or had the potential to impact cancer research. This healthcare crisis changed not only the daily lives of people everywhere, but also access to the financial resources needed in cancer research, the way patients apply for that research, and access to cancer care. Furthermore, issues like staffing problems, administrative delays, or supply chain disruptions quickly became more important than ever before. Although in a post-COVID world, cancer research should once again become a priority for both scientists and medical professionals around the world, and all these issues should be solved. However, a new crisis now threatens to disrupt scientific research.

How the pandemic impacted cancer research

According to The Guardian, the amount of cancer research papers in the UK dropped by almost a third in the year that COVID-19 appeared. Moreover, a top charity from the same country declared that this decline is most likely connected to the impact the pandemic had on charity stores and fundraising efforts. Data from the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) shows that British investments in cancer research had been growing steadily in the five years before the healthcare crisis. However, after the emergence of the virus that ultimately caused the pandemic, this trend reversed, with spending 9% smaller in 2020 – 2021. 

The UK is not alone in facing new issues in finding resources to fund cancer research. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, it also put pressure on most healthcare systems, and numerous resources had to be redistributed to fund vaccine development, COVID-19 care, and the development of new antibodies and antiviral treatments. In the US, however, the budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2022 recently increased to $7,415 million, and it includes investments in new research necessary to understand and treat cancer, as well as infrastructure support to help research succeed, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). 

Why investing in cancer research is important

The COVID-19 pandemic is now approaching its end and cancer research seems to once again become a top priority for scientists and medical professionals in the US and abroad. With cancer being a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it comes as no surprise that the American scientific community now feels it has to do more to combat this disease. However, according to NCI, efforts to develop the colossal opportunities in cancer research also need numerous investments across multiple funding mechanisms. 

The good news is that President Joe Biden recently announced a new plan of ending cancer as we know it. “Cancer is the second cause of death in America — second only to heart disease,” he said. “Last month, I announced our plan to supercharge the Cancer Moonshot that President Obama asked me to lead six years ago. Our goal is to cut the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years, turn more cancers from death sentences into treatable diseases,” he added during his State of the Union Address. However, during the same speech, the President also remarked that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is now shaking the foundations of the free world by starting a conflict in Ukraine.

A new crisis comes with new issues

The fact that Russia’s army has invaded the neighboring country of Ukraine may seem of little or no importance when discussing the future of cancer research. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has already proved that a global crisis has the potential to impact multiple industries around the world, changing the way people live, work, and spend their free time. Moreover, a global crisis can also change people’s wants and needs, altering perspectives and future investments. Considering the fact that the conflict in Ukraine is now expected to become a ‘catastrophe’ for the global economy, it may be worth noting it could also grow to become a problem for scientific investments like cancer research.

The world has managed to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic by working together to develop new vaccines and treatments and creating social distancing rules to prevent infection. The same could probably be true for cancer if scientific research and new treatments become priorities for governments around the world and new investments are made in this field. However, a new military crisis in Europe might force governments to once again change their plans and address the bigger issue first. This, in turn, might prove catastrophic for cancer research — an industry already struggling to overcome the effects of the pandemic.