NCI Director Letai wants you to know: Grant money is flowing again post-government shutdown

The Cancer Letter’s most recent cover story featured an in-depth Q&A with Anthony G Letai, director of the National Cancer Institute. In this week’s episode of The Cancer Letter Podcast, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Jacquelyn Cobb, associate editor, shared the behind-the-scenes editorial decision making behind the story. “It might almost read a little bit of a boring story,” Jacquelyn said. “It's not, but it's very repetitive, it's very in line with what he has been saying, and that is the point. That is the point—this repetition is what he's trying for and what NCI is trying for and what the national cancer enterprise arguably needs, according to Letai, at this time.” In this episode, listeners can hear an excerpt from The Cancer Letter’s interview with Letai. The full conversation is available as a video. One major lingering concern from the oncology community is about the status of granted money getting out of NCI and to grantees. “Really, I want to make it clear there are no real major speed bumps or impediments in our way to getting these grants out the door,” Letai said. “The major impediment really was the government shutdown. And I think it's a credit to the NCI staff who've been doing an excellent job, given the many changes that have come their way, to keep business as usual, keep the grant money flowing out to the extramural programs. As is typical, as is usual, roughly 75% of the entire NCI budget is going to the extramural program, and Fiscal Year 2026 is going to follow exactly that pattern.” According to the latest numbers NCI provided to The Cancer Letter, on March 17, 22 competing grants were awarded by the institute. By April 9, 167 grants were awarded. This amounts to about 200 competing grants awarded per month or about 50 per week, though this is just a very small sample size, as NCI did not receive many competing awards to pay until late February, an NCI institute official said. The plan is for that pace to pick up significantly. Additionally, 1,514 non-competing awards have been paid since mid-November 2025. “It's nice to remind people that there is an actual scientist at NCI, not a blogger like us. Not a podcaster, like us,” Paul said. “Who actually has a scientific vision, which is fantastic to have, and who is more like the past NCI directors than not. And if you've heard him say something that's vaguely reassuring, it's nice to have him repeat it because that way you know that you heard it correctly the first time. “He's got enormous influence in his job. And part of the influence is to be essentially the unlicensed psychiatrist and chief. That’s what is needed. “Actually, that doesn't make him any different from any other NCI director that we've ever known. Some have been better psychiatrists than others. But all have been unlicensed.”