The state of K2R grant funding by cancer type from the National Cancer Institute

Objectives: Given that K grant funding secured in early career correlates with success in achieving R funding, we aim to describe the state of K and R funding by cancer type through time, hypothesizing that those cancer sites receiving more K grant allocation also receive greater R grant allocation. Methods: We queried the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Research portfolio from 2007-2017 for K and R grant sums by year and 19 cancer sites. Yearly K grant amount means, medians and sums were summarized for each cancer site, and the sums trended over time, as were yearly K grant number of funded studies. R grant sums were similarly trended through time using linear regression with year as the independent variable. The relationship between K and R grant funding was assessed using a multivariable linear regression model with K grant yearly total by year interaction and adjusting for cancer site, after applying a Box-Cox transformation of R grant total amount to gain linearity. All statistical analyses were performed in R, version 4.0.2. Results: Median yearly number of funded K grants range from 0-85 and median total yearly dollar amounts range from $0-10.66 million. Breast, leukemia and lung (85, 47, 45 respectively) have the highest median number of K grants per year; and breast, lung, and brain ($10.66, 5.95, and 5.85 million) have the highest total yearly amount of K grant funding. Cervical, ovarian and uterine cancer sites ranked 11, 9, and 14 in median number of yearly funded K grants over the 19 cancer sites considered, and 14, 13, and 17 in yearly median K grant dollar amounts. By total yearly R grant medians, the highest funded three cancer sites were breast, lung, and colorectal, while cervix, ovary and uterus ranked 11, 10, and 16. The rates of change over time in K grant funding for cervix, ovarian, and uterine cancer were 0.008, 0.107, and -0.014, while the rates of change in R grant funding for these sites were -1.088, 0.987, and 0.186. They ranked thus 14, 7, and 15 in K grant growth across all sites, and 17, 7, and 12 in R grant growth across sites. K grant funding is significantly associated with growth in R grant funding (p=0.021) adjusting for all cancer sites. Download : Download high-res image (162KB) Download : Download full-size image Conclusions: Gynecologic cancers are being funded at a lower rate and dollar amount than other cancer types at the K grant level, and this correlates as well with lower rates and dollar amounts at the R grant level. Given early career investigators typically foster innovation, it behooves us to advocate for and mentor more K grant funding recipients in gynecologic cancers. K and R grant funding also demonstrate stagnant growth in gynecologic cancers, also a potential arena for advocacy for allotment of funding.