Marit McQuaig: mcquaig@wisc.edu
Hunter Gage: hgage@wisc.edu
Sydney Mathiason: smathiason@wisc.edu
Anonymous Student
In this project, we investigated the overall cancer burden in the United States, and then analyzed federal research expenditures for different cancers. We were particularly interested in assessing why some cancers are more well-funded than others. We analyzed several potential contributing factors, such as incidence and mortality rates, years of life lost, and economic impacts. We found that funding tends to correlate moderately with economic factors such as national spending and lost productivity, but they do not correlate with incidence rates, mortality rates, or years of life lost. We concluded that the NCI should consider these factors when reviewing grant applications, in order to achieve more equitable funding that correlates with societal impact.