HHS is doubling its investment in AI-enabled pediatric cancer research, raising the annual budget for the National Cancer Institute’s childhood cancer data initiative from $50 million to $100 million.
The increase follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. The initiative, first launched by the Trump administration in 2019, focuses on improving cancer diagnostics, treatments and prevention strategies by harnessing advanced data infrastructure and artificial intelligence tools.
HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, director of the National Cancer Institute, joined President Trump at the White House to discuss the expanded effort, according to a Sept. 30 news release.
The initiative will also leverage EHR and claims data to inform future research and clinical trial design. Officials said families will retain control of their children’s health information as part of the program’s privacy safeguards.
The effort is part of the broader Make America Healthy Again Commission strategy report, which called for AI-powered research to identify cancer risks earlier and prevent disease during childhood and young adulthood. Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death for children in the U.S., and incidence rates have climbed more than 40% since 1975.
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