Cancer Research Funding Skewed Toward Wealthy Countries
Global annual investment in cancer research has largely declined since 2016, while stark funding inequalities persist.
Cancer accounts for one in five deaths worldwide, yet many countries lack resources to fund essential research. Despite rising cancer rates, lower-income nations remain critically underfunded, warn researchers at the University of Southampton. Their study, published in The Lancet Oncology, shows that global annual investment in cancer research has largely declined since 2016, while stark funding inequalities persist.
Lead author Dr. Michael Head emphasized the urgency: “Inequalities in investment across nations, and low research funding for certain treatments, can lead to an imbalance in the cancers we can tackle and the areas of the world benefiting. It’s crucial we understand how and where money is allocated.”
“Very little funding is directed the way of the poorer countries in the world, but cancer rates are typically rising fastest in these nations. There are opportunities to increase the capacity of research, encourage local leadership and build infrastructure that can increase the local relevance of findings,” Head told Technology Networks.
Disparities in funding distribution and treatment areas
The team analyzed two major datasets covering public and philanthropic funding between 2016 and 2023. Using machine learning, large language models and expert review, they assessed global and Commonwealth investment patterns.
Their analysis revealed 107,955 awards made during this period, amounting to $51.4 billion. The United States (US) accounted for the largest share, investing $29.3 billion – 57% of the total. The Commonwealth contributed $8.7 billion, led by the United Kingdom ($5.7 billion), followed by Australia ($1.5 billion) and Canada ($1.3 billion). However, much of this funding stayed within these nations, with very little reaching lower-income countries.
On the other hand, low-income nations received just $8.4 million, less than 0.1% of global awards, despite facing some of the heaviest cancer burdens.
Alongside geographic disparities, the study highlights major gaps in funding for specific treatment areas. Pre-clinical research dominated, taking 76% of funding. Breast and blood cancers received strong support, while essential treatment areas such as surgery and radiotherapy were critically underfunded.
Surgery accounted for only 1.7% of research awards and radiotherapy for 3.1%, despite both being central to cancer care worldwide.
“Some of the cancer treatments, such as radiotherapy and surgery, really do need more funding for research. These approaches are potentially curative, so how can we best unlock their potential across lower-income nations?” said Head.
Co-author Anbang Du warned that disparities could worsen without coordinated global action:
“Unless we scale up targeted investments and build local research capacity, the inequalities will continue to persist. If the US reduces its funding, that gap will widen even further. Nation groups like the Commonwealth must coordinate efforts to mobilize funding, build sustained partnerships and strengthen training and infrastructure so that advances in cancer science benefit everyone, everywhere.”
Global trends and the path forward
The analysis also tracked global funding trends. After a sharp rise in 2021, worldwide cancer research investment has steadily declined.
“We expected to see a decline in 2020, when much of the funding was diverted for COVID-19 research. The precise cause of the uptick in 2021 is uncertain, but it’s likely because some projects that may have started in 2020 were shelved for a year, thus it’s a little bit of a ‘rebound’ effect,” Head explained.
Contributions from BRICS nations such as Russia, India and China grew until 2018 but have since fallen, while European Union investment has increased since 2021.
“One of the reasons we studied the Commonwealth is that this is a fairly unique multi-country network covering higher- and lower-income nations. There are opportunities to build bridges across these nations, to produce findings that are relevant for the poorer countries and can be implemented within their health systems,” said Head.
The Far-Reaching Impacts of Next-Generation Sequencing
This infographic will explore how NGS has contributed to advances in personalized cancer treatment, microbiome research and environmental sciences.View Infographic
Looking ahead, the researchers stress the need for innovative approaches to mobilize funding and empower local research leaders:
“We hope that there can be new sources of funding found, particularly in the face of US funding cuts. Investing in lower-income countries is vital, including training researchers, allowing them to lead on research projects and providing equitable policies that ensure they can receive funding up front rather than being reimbursed later,” Head concluded.
Reference: Du A, Brede M, McIntosh SA, et al. Public and philanthropic research funding, publications, and research networks for cancer in the Commonwealth and globally between 2016 and 2023: a comparative analysis. Lancet Oncol. 2025;26(9):e466-e476. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(25)00338-9
About the interviewee
Dr. Michael Head is a senior research fellow in global health, in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. His main focus is population health in rural Ghana, looking at access to healthcare and issues such as the links between climate change and health, neglected tropical diseases, and vaccine hesitancy. He also has a long track record of addressing anti-vaccine activism, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Head has also developed analyses that build networks to consider research funding and publication trends across different areas of health. These papers have been published in high-impact journals such as The Lancet and Nature.
