With the future of her cancer treatment in limbo, Natalie Phelps doesn’t know how much longer she can wait.
Last month, after months of seeking treatment options for her colorectal cancer, the 43-year-old mother of two was accepted into an ongoing study at the National Institutes of Health. She thought the research would allow her to receive an experimental immunotherapy – but she now faces an excruciating wait and an equally excruciating choice.
First, her tumor must grow to at least 1 centimeter in size in order to receive treatment, she said. But even after she meets that criteria, an abrupt reduction in the NIH workforce means her treatment will take much longer to develop than initially expected. She’s worried that that extra time may make a huge difference in her health.
The Trump administration has been conducting a review of funding and a restructuring of the US Department of Health and Human Services, resulting in massive waves of job cuts across federal health agencies under HHS, including the NIH, the nation’s medical research agency.
Part of the HHS transformation involves decreasing the NIH workforce by about 1,200 “by centralizing procurement, human resources, and communications across its 27 institutes and centers,” according to the Trump administration. The administration announced in late March that the HHS restructuring would save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year through an overall reduction of about 10,000 full-time employees.
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