This year has marked unprecedented progress against cancer—as well as challenges. According to findings in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics, 2026 report, the 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined has reached a milestone of 70% for individuals diagnosed between 2015 and 2021. Survivors with high-mortality cancers and advanced diagnoses saw the largest gains, including increases from 32% to 62% for multiple myeloma; 7% to 22% for liver cancer; and 15% to 28% for lung cancer. In addition, the cancer mortality rate has continued to decline through 2023, averting 4.8 million cancer-related deaths since 1991.1
Despite this good news, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease, and, in 2026, the American Cancer Society predicts that approximately 2,114,850 individuals will be diagnosed with cancer, and over 626,000 will die from the disease.1 Also noted in the report is that while decades of scientific research have resulted in lives saved and lives prolonged for those with even the most fatal cancers, continued progress is threatened by federal cuts to cancer research and the expiration of enhanced federal subsidies to the Affordable Care Act, which is driving the cost of health care up for millions of Americans, and out of reach for millions more.
Shane Jacobson
In this wide-ranging interview with The ASCO Post, Shane Jacobson, Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS) and its affiliate the ACS Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) , discussed the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for the organizations; development of a new strategic plan to increase access to cancer prevention approaches, early detection, and treatment; and increased engagement with public policymakers to raise federal funding for cancer research.
Celebrating Increasing Rates of Cancer Survivorship
There was much to celebrate in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics, 2026 report, including that the 5-year survival rate for all cancers combined had reached 70%, with large survival gains for individuals with advanced and fatal cancers. Please talk about the progress being made in cancer, and how federal cuts to research could upend that progress.
I want to start by saying that we want to celebrate the fact that we have crossed that 70% 5-year survival rate for individuals diagnosed with cancer. That milestone is a true testament to all of us who are trying to defeat cancer, and, of course, the American Cancer Society plays a key role in that effort. This increase in overall survival, especially for those diagnosed with more life-threatening cancers, represents many decades of steady, incremental progress in research, advancements in patient care, treatments, and diagnostics, as well as increases in early detection and in increased awareness of prevention strategies. So, while we are excited about this progress, there is still much work to do. We have not conquered cancer, but we have won some major victories, thanks in large part to federal funding for cancer research.
We can prove that decades of federal funding for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have inextricably led to improvements in cancer survivorship. For example, from 1991 to 2023, we have seen a 34% decline in the overall cancer mortality rate that is the direct result of federal funding for cancer research.2 That research has led to new knowledge in the development and treatment of cancers, and how to apply that knowledge to improve survivors’ lives.
At the American Cancer Society, we are certainly focused on funding more research, and are also calling on our lawmakers to fully fund the NCI and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to ensure continued breakthroughs in cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment.
Adhering to Three Core Principles to Impact Patient Care
Your tenure as Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society began in August 2025 at the height of federal funding cuts to NIH and NCI, as well as to research laboratories at universities, and just as increases in costs for health insurance are resulting in limited access to affordable treatment and screening, increased financial toxicity for patients, and the likelihood of worse outcomes and higher mortality rates, especially for vulnerable populations. How are these factors impacting the goals of the American Cancer Society; and where do you see opportunities for progress?
These challenges you mention suggest that we are as important today as we have ever been. The challenges we face as an organization align centrally to our strengths and our historic impact on cancer survivors and their families, and that shows us where we need to go next.
We operate through three distinct pillars, which are our superpowers, that are designed to improve patients’ lives. Those core pillars are research, patient support, and advocacy. In the first pillar, as a result of the threats to federal funding for research, we know that the nearly half-a-billion-dollar research portfolio that we currently carry is needed now more than ever.
Our second pillar includes patient support programs that provide information and resources throughout as many communities as possible. For example, we have 31 Hope Lodges across the country that offer patients and their families a home away from home while undergoing treatment. We also provide free transportation for patients who may not otherwise have a way of getting to and from their clinical appointments.
Our patient support program intersects with our third mission pillar, advocacy. The ACS CAN has a presence in all 50 states and we work on the local and state level with our federally elected officials to pass policies that promote cancer prevention, early detection, and access to care.
These three core principles touch the ecosystem that is cancer and the cancer journey and give us a roadmap to where we can make the biggest difference in patients’ lives as possible.
Putting the Patient First
Do you have a new strategic plan for 2026 based on these three core mission pillars?
I was recruited to ACS to craft a new strategic plan and we are now in the process of producing that plan. Moving from not having a strategic plan to having one is a journey, and we expect to launch our plan later this year, but I can say that it will put the patient first. We are going to focus all our attention on the reason we exist, and that is the patient.
We are developing important new components to our programming to even more effectively and impactfully ensure that all individuals have the opportunity to prevent cancer, detect it early, and survive the disease. Our ultimate goal, of course, is to save more lives. We also want to diminish suffering in all its forms, including physical, emotional, and financial.
I’m very excited about our direction and in collaborating more with ASCO to build models that help us maximize our potential together.
Funding Scientists’ Biggest and Boldest Ideas to Conquer Cancer
In September 2025, ACS announced a new investment of $43.2 million in new cancer research grants, which will fund 92 grants at 69 institutions nationwide.3 What is the total amount of active research funding that the ACS manages, and what areas of research are you prioritizing?
We currently have a half-billion dollars in active research, which makes us the largest nongovernmental, nonprofit funder of cancer research in the United States. Since 1946, we have awarded $5.6 billion in cancer research, including grants to 52 early-career researchers who later were awarded the Nobel Prize in science.
Within our portfolio, we have about 825 active research grants across the country. Our research priorities include the following: prevention and early detection, which is where we see the greatest gains in lives saved; increased focus on equity-driven research; expanded access to clinical trials; and discovery science. We want to fund scientists’ biggest and boldest ideas and research that has high risk, high reward, and high opportunity to get us closer to ending cancer as we know it.
Confronting the Challenges Ahead
What do you see as your biggest challenges over the coming year?
I would put our biggest challenges into a few categories. One is stabilizing research funding, and doing everything we can through our advocacy work to elevate federal funding levels for cancer research at the NCI and NIH. Another is advancing equity in research in the face of shifting trends. Our vision as an enterprise is to end cancer once and for all and that’s our goal for every patient.
We are seeing progress in survival gains and in decreasing mortality rates, as is shown in our Cancer Statistics, 2026 report, but as the report also showed, this incredible progress isn’t being experienced by all patients, including Native American and Black individuals who continue to have the highest cancer mortality rates compared to White individuals.
In the space of resource diversification, ACS is in the fundraising business as well, and we have an opportunity to tell our story and to galvanize more partners, foundations, and companies to become part of what we are doing. I approach fundraising as a way to invest in our mission to improve the lives of patients with cancer with our patient services, and through our research and advocacy programming.
Finally, I’ll go back to the importance of collaboration. That challenge is also an opportunity to authentically add value to our current partnerships and have an even greater impact on patients’ lives. We want to expand our partnership framework, so that those collaborations bring even more to the table to solve some of the greatest challenges we face in cancer today.
And this opportunity extends to The ASCO Post audience as well. We want to be a value-added partner with ASCO and its members and a collaborator in the important work happening every day by talented ASCO leaders, scientists, oncologists, and advanced practitioners that believe in and are working toward the same goal: to eradicate cancer as a major health problem for all individuals impacted by the disease.
Reducing the Cancer Burden for All Patients
What plans do you have to increase ACS’ advocacy work through ACS CAN?
The Cancer Action Network has been a valuable part of public policy discussions at all levels of government for the past 25 years. The organization focuses on reducing the burden of a cancer diagnosis on patients’ lives and improving access to care, which is more important than ever before with the elimination of the enhanced subsidies to the health-care exchanges in the Affordable Care Act. Now, millions of Americans may be facing a cancer journey without access to affordable health care.
At the ACS CAN we have an amazing and committed group of grass-roots volunteers in all 50 states that make their voices heard and influence evidence-based public policy change, including legislative solutions that will reduce the cancer burden. As I mentioned earlier, we want to ensure equitable access to cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment, nationwide.
We also want to make our legislators aware of how funding for cancer research is leading to more cancer cures and allowing more survivors to thrive after a cancer diagnosis.
This work will continue and we hope to expand ACS CAN programs in the future to get closer to ending cancer as we know it—for everyone.
DISCLOSURE: Mr. Jacobson has no financial conflicts of interest to declare.
REFERENCES
1. Siegel RL, Kratzer TB, Wagle NS, et al: Cancer statistics, 2026. CA Cancer J Clin 76(1):e70043, 2026.
2. American Cancer Society/Cancer Action Network: Updated: Executive actions cause confusion and concern for potential impact on cancer research. January 29, 2025. Available at www.fightcancer.org/releases/updated-executive-actions-cause-confusion-and-concern-potential-impact-cancer-research#:~:text=“Cancer%20research%20has%20long%20enjoyed,these%20changes%20and%20identify%20solutions. Accessed May 7, 2026.
3. Cincotta K: American Cancer Society awards 92 new research grants. Available at www.cancer.org/research/acs-research-news/acs-awards-92-new-research-grants.html. Accessed May 7, 2026.
