Minnesota cancer researchers face uncertainty amid sudden proposed changes to NIH funding rules
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Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health abruptly reduced billions of dollars in overhead costs tied to grant-funded research, prompting uncertainty and stress for cancer researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the NIH’s plan to cap indirect costs, but the change could have far-reaching effects on lifesaving and life-prolonging cancer treatments and clinical trials for patients.
The University of Minnesota currently projects the impact of the campuswide proposed NIH cuts to be $100 to $130 million annually.
Dr. Christopher Moertel is worried about the pace of pediatric cancer research going forward and about the patients they treat every day.
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“To bring these things on suddenly, just doesn’t make sense. What do we do?” asked Moertel, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Minnesota.
Moertel treats Brandon Lawrence, a 21–year–old realtor and manager at Scheels, who started experiencing severe headaches while in high school. After multiple scans and tests over four days, he was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disorder of the nervous system that causes tumors to form on the nerves anywhere in the body at any given time.
The tumor was on the optical pathway in the middle of his brain, making surgery to remove it very unlikely. Treatment with a clinical trial drug was an option though.
“Since I have been on that drug, the tumor’s shrunk 80 percent so far from where it was at one point, which is a miracle. The only side effect that I have is getting blonder hair. So, I mean, I cannot really complain,” Lawrence said.
Moertel conducts research and launches new clinical trials at Masonic Cancer Center in Minneapolis where he directs the hematology oncology clinic. New medical therapies are studied, tested and developed there.
He also leads the neurofibromatosis clinic at the Masonic Cancer Center, one of the few care sites in the nation for the disease that Lawrence has.
“Brandon was treated on a clinical trial through the Children’s Oncology Group, which is a consortium of hospitals across the country that all work together,” Moertel said. The National Institutes of Health provides all the funds to maintain the group and the therapy Lawrence receives is the product of three decades of research.
“Each time we learn something new we build upon it to make life better for our patients,” Moertel said. “And it is all because of the therapies that have been developed over time as a result of NIH funding and infrastructure.”
The Trump administration wants to cap NIH funding for indirect costs associated with medical research to a set 15 percent rate. The current rate at the University of Minnesota is 54 percent. The cap is not supposed to affect the research itself, but the university said the two cannot be separated.
Direct costs of grants pay for the actual research. Indirect costs allow for the environment to carry out the projects and pay for regulatory compliance, patient safety oversight, and the infrastructure that’s needed to do research. This includes lab space, equipment, utilities, facilities and support staff often critical to such initiatives. These costs also cover the salaries of administrators and graduate students involved in research.
If the cuts materialize, the Masonic Cancer Center is looking at an annual loss of $6 million in infrastructure.
Aaron Schilz, executive director and assistant director for administration, has been with the center for 17 years. He oversees business and operations and said there are about 60 labs between the Masonic Cancer Center’s two buildings that have similar support needs.
“The indirect costs are such a critical piece of the formula to take on efforts that find cures and treatments for diseases that impact everybody,” Schilz said, adding that they “do what we can with them because we’re not a business and that is not the way things work.”
He described a sense of paralysis consuming his colleagues as events move quickly.
Dr. Robin Williams, clinician and assistant professor in the division of pediatric hematology/oncology at the U, is an early career investigator. She has a small research lab specializing in leukemias and lymphomas and is still getting her footing within the system.
“Having things like these NIH cuts is going to be harder for any of us who are new to have our work validated and recognized as being fundable,” Williams said. “We often start with other avenues for getting money and then generate data that then allows us to write NIH-level grants.”
Williams noted that the number of women in both basic and clinical cancer research is small, and there are many ways these policies are hurting science.
Sen. Paul Utke, R-Park Rapids, a ranking minority member on the Minnesota Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, said the U plays an important role in the advancement of research but he does not think the cap on indirect costs will be a loss in the end.
“I think they have plenty of tools in their toolbox to make this work. They were told now that your grant monies can only be used for X, which is the research part of it. But in this case, I think it is responsible government,” Utke said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said they will continue to assess this policy choice and whether it is in the best interest of taxpayers.
Andrew G. Nixon, director of communications at HHS, said in an email, “Our administration wants to help America have the best research in the world, and we believe that by ensuring that more cents on every dollar go directly to science and not to administrative overhead, we can take another step in that direction.”
There are currently 250 sponsored and active clinical trials at the Masonic Cancer Center that involve over 15,000 patients.
Brandon Lawrence’s medical team does not have a time frame for when they will stop treatment because the results have been great.
“At this current point, we are just going to continue on the drug,” he said. “And we do not see any side effects, so why stop something that is working so well.”