Dozens of National Institutes of Health employees were laid off as part of a sweeping executive order implemented by the Trump administration – on the same day researchers published a ‘remarkable’ cancer treatment breakthrough.
The timing stunned members of the scientific and medical community, who warned that the cuts will delay urgently needed care for cancer patients and slow the pace of research in a field already under strain.
The layoffs, which affected both researchers and technical staff, were carried out on Tuesday just hours after Nature Medicine published a study by NIH scientists showing early success using personalized immunotherapy to shrink solid tumors in patients with colon, rectal, and other GI cancers.
The study marked a potential breakthrough in the effort to apply cell-based treatments to solid tumors, a frontier that has remained out of reach even as such therapies have succeeded in blood cancers like leukemia.
‘This is not theoretical,’ said Dr. Steven Rosenberg, chief of surgery at the National Cancer Institute and a lead author of the study to the Washington Post. ‘We’ve already had to delay treatment for some patients. People who are running out of time.’
At least two patients eligible for the new therapy have already experienced treatment delays due to staffing reductions and supply bottlenecks triggered by earlier rounds of administrative slowdowns, Rosenberg confirmed.
The latest cuts are expected to create even further disruptions.
Among those laid off were two scientists involved in preparing the highly personalized immune cell therapies used in the trial.
Nine other key researchers have contracts set to expire in 2025 or 2026, with no guarantees of renewal.
‘Right now, assuming things don’t get any worse, it would be a month [delay],’ Rosenberg said. ‘These are not patients that have very many months left.’
The Trump administration has described the downsizing effort as part of a broader reorganization aimed at curbing federal workforce growth.
In a statement to media outlets a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said only: ‘NIH and HHS are complying with President Trump’s executive order.’
The impact is already being felt by patients like 43-year-old Natalie Phelps of Washington state, who was screened this fall at the NIH Clinical Center as a candidate for the experimental TIL (tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes) therapy.
After years of aggressive surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy, Phelps qualified for the trial – pending the growth of one of her tumors to meet size requirements.
But since returning home, she’s watched in frustration as the trial timeline stretches under the weight of administrative and logistical delays. With the new layoffs, she fears she may miss her window altogether.
‘I told my kids I was going to see the best doctors in the country,’ she said. ‘Now I don’t know what to tell them.’
The study itself was cautiously optimistic.
In a three-stage trial, researchers found that the new personalized cell therapy led to tumor shrinkage in eight of 34 patients – an incremental but significant step in a field where success rates have been near zero for solid tumors.
The process involves sequencing a patient’s tumor DNA, identifying vulnerable mutations, and expanding the immune cells that can target them.
Dr. Patrick Hwu, president of Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida, called the results ‘very exciting,’ noting that ‘very few labs in the country can do what they just did.’
But those same labs, including Rosenberg’s, now face staffing shortfalls, purchasing delays, and travel restrictions that he says are directly impeding research and care.
‘We’ve had to slow down our work,’ Rosenberg said. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this in my career.’
Rosenberg himself was unable to attend a recent Society of Surgical Oncology conference due to a new restriction, cutting off a key avenue for collaboration.
‘Science is not a solitary effort,’ he said. ‘You lose time, you lose people, and you start losing momentum.’
The NIH Clinical Center, the nation’s largest research hospital, remains operational, but internal sources said the loss of key staff – many with highly specialized knowledge in cell therapy manufacturing – has already reduced capacity.
The layoffs come amid growing concern about cancer incidence in younger Americans.
Recent studies have shown colorectal and GI cancers rising in people under 50, raising alarms about the need for accelerated research and new treatment options.
Phelps, like many patients, is watching the clock.
‘It’s hard enough having a terminal illness,’ she said. ‘To see hope pushed further away for bureaucratic reasons – it’s unbearable.’
