At the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, children across the country can gain access to promising trials of cancer treatments when standard therapies fail. Among these are several conducted by the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium — a network of 15 centres across the United States and Canada that are funded by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI).
In August, news broke that the consortium would be stopping people from enrolling in its clinical trials across North America, after losing federal funding beyond March 2026. The decision was handed down by the NCI, part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). “The process of closing those studies, not just in Canada, but in the US, is beginning,” says Jim Whitlock, a paediatric oncologist at the Hospital for Sick Children. “This is a real tragedy.”
Nature Spotlight: Canada
For Whitlock and other Canadian scientists who have collaborations with US partners, the past ten months have been turbulent. With US scientific agencies such as the NIH, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeing billions of dollars in funding cuts and job losses under the administration of US President Donald Trump, the effects have also been felt in Canada. There, cancelled projects and uncertainty have caused scientists and academics undue stress.
Total losses to Canadian science are unclear. Among some US federal grant agencies, it can be difficult to see where the funding goes in Canada and who receives it, says Félix Proulx-Giraldeau, interim executive director at Evidence for Democracy in Ottawa, which promotes scientific evidence in governmental decision-making. He adds that whereas the NIH has “gold-standard” transparency about funding recipients, information on grants from organizations such as the EPA and the US National Science Foundation can be harder to keep track of. “It’s unequal across the board,” says Proulx-Giraldeau. As for the rationale behind the cuts to research funding, he highlights media reports that suggest some words and phrases — such as those mentioning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), transgender research and disparities faced by minority ethnic groups — might be used to flag grants for further scrutiny.
“What we’re seeing has us really worried, especially about how these attacks on science translate to attacks on science in Canada, directly and indirectly,” he says.
Health divides
The Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium is not the only cancer-trial platform affected by US cuts. As a specialist in acute leukaemia, Whitlock is part of a broader collaboration called the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), which is the world’s largest research organization for childhood and adolescent cancers. The COG operates across more than 220 institutions, with over 100 clinical trials active globally. Of these, 76 involve patients at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.
Budget release: Canada courts US researchers and signals wider commitment to science
The first whisper of trouble came early on in the year, when Whitlock learnt that certain international research projects would no longer receive NIH funding, a development subsequently confirmed by the COG leadership. Not wanting to halt the group trials taking place at his hospital, Whitlock and his colleagues accessed funding through the hospital’s foundation. However, the longevity of this measure is unclear. “That puts us in a real dilemma,” he says.
... continue reading