Redistribution of federal financial backing may have drastic implications for cancer studies, they warn
With federal research funds increasingly being earmarked for such publicly visible areas of biomedical investigation as AIDS and women's health, cancer research institutions in the United States are finding themselves in a bind.

Saddled with a shrinking piece of the budgetary pie, heads of the nation's basic cancer research centers are struggling to maintain their high scientific standards while making ends meet. They worry that the frustration of stagnant funding levels will drive their best researchers to seek greener pastures. And they are concerned that, in the long run, the necessity of cutting costs will serve only to hinder scientific progress.

The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia shares the woes of other basic science cancer centers: how to deal with an uncertain funding environment, given the increased push by federal funding agencies to...

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