“We have a different disease,” says Ricki Fairley, a mother of two who was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer 13 years ago.
Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than any other racial group — 38% more likely than white women, even though Black women are often less likely to be diagnosed.
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Researchers have known about this mortality gap for years. Federal websites have referenced these disparities and outlined priorities to address them, but many of the pages were briefly taken down in early 2025.
It was part of the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on what it calls “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”
“Right now, federal research is under attack,” Fairley explains.
Science Under Siege
The Trump administration has restructured health agencies, fired thousands, and halted dozens of federal research grants that were investigating health disparities.
“The agencies that are receiving most of the cuts are those that are inextricably linked to making America healthy again,” Linda Alexander, chief academic officer for the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, said. “The federal funding cuts are going to be, will be, and are devastating to many of our members.”
As part of the new federal policies, dozens of research grants allocated for universities were cut in March 2025. Two were planning to explore breast cancer in Black women, losing a combined total of $806,000 in federal funding.
One of those projects was led by Adana Llanos Wilson, an epidemiologist and tenured professor at Columbia University. Her research explored the role chronic stress plays in Black women’s breast cancer risk.
“Halting these studies doesn’t just slow down science, it stalls progress toward justice,” Wilson says.
“This is not just about losing grants — it’s about losing ground,” she says. “When equity-focused science gets defunded, we send a message that some lives matter less, and that is deeply troubling.”
Now the future of her study is unclear as she seeks alternative funding. It’s just one example of research stalled this year in an area already historically understudied.
Alpa Patel, senior vice president of Population Science at the American Cancer Society, which has led major cancer research for 70 years, says “over 90% of our study populations have been individuals who are non-Hispanic, white.” And, she says, “You can’t study who is not in your studies.”
Fighting for Black Women’s Health
Black women only represent 2% of all cancer clinical trial participants. These clinical trials, also known as clinical studies, allow researchers to test whether potential drugs and medical interventions actually work.
“The drugs aren’t working as effectively as they could because they were never tested on our bodies,” Fairley says. Through her nonprofit, she says she’s helped connect more than 20,000 Black women with clinical trials. “I know that God left me here to do this work,” she explains.
But in this political environment, what’s the future of campaigns like this that push for more research of Black women?
“It will have deleterious consequences if this continues to play out,” Alexander warns. But she’s optimistic that many organizations remain committed to health equity and are actively seeking funding outside the government, including from private companies.
A Commitment to Cancer Treatment and Care
“The business community, whether they articulate it or not, has a vested interest in the health and wealth of their employees and of the communities,” she says.
Fairley says she is confident that the pharmaceutical industry will uphold its commitment to cancer treatment development that is effective for as many people as possible.
“The pharma companies have a lot of money at stake in terms of making drugs, and so they’re going to continue making the research that they need to make the drugs they need to sell to make money,” she says.
According to its website, the American Cancer Society is primarily funded through personal donations. The nonprofit is moving forward with its plan to enroll 100,000 Black women in its Voices of Black Women research study.
Wilson says no matter the political environment, “cancer disparities aren’t going away without this crucial work,” and she and her team aren’t going away either.
Fairley shares that sentiment. “We’re going to have to weather this DEI storm and do everything that we can do to keep this research going,” she says.
This story is part one of a multimedia series exploring Black women and breast cancer. It was published with the assistance of the Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS) Health Journalism Fellowship, supported by the Commonwealth Fund.
