Washington needs to uphold its commitment to combatting cancer

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 6, 2026

Washington is a big deal in the fight against cancer.

From Fred Hutch to the University of Washington Medical School, Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Allen Institute, and others in the Puget Sound area, as well as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland and Washington State University’s work on tobacco and rural care.

Our state is truly all-in against cancer and has been for generations.

And we’ve seen great strides. A cancer diagnosis is still a scary thing, but survivorship is now more likely than ever. The progress and innovation in prevention, detection and treatment of the disease is a true success story.

But we need to stay invested, and the Washington Legislature needs to keep that commitment during the 2026 session.

None of the stunning advances made in the fight against cancer — so many of them right in our own backyard — matter if people do not have access to them.

With the Legislature facing another daunting budget year, prioritizing lives has to be a part of the math — if not the biggest part. It might not be sortable in a spreadsheet, but decisions made in the 2026 session will be tantamount to picking winners and losers, choosing who has a better chance to survive cancer and who will be more likely to be one of the too many who will die from the disease this year and beyond.

Cancer remains one of the top causes of death in Washington. But our state has been successful when it comes to making sure as many people as possible have access to the tools needed for early detection, which means more people have more years with loved ones.

The state’s current budget stress and the impact of Medicaid cuts at the federal level, as well as the possibility of additional cuts, will certainly test our resolve on this matter.

Nearly 49,000 Washington residents will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and 14,160 will die from the disease. We cannot draw down our efforts to beat cancer back. Continued investment in cures and the technology that drives these rates down and makes detection tools available to as many of our friends and neighbors as possible must continue at the state and federal levels.

We hope our leaders in Washington, D.C. will work together to pass budget legislation that provides the highest possible funding increases for cancer research and prevention at the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But one of the key reasons we have made such significant strides against cancer is that we have all worked in the same direction for decades. Predictable, sustainable funding and coordinated action from providers, insurers, lawmakers and government agencies must include protection of programs like our Breast, Cervical and Colon Health Program. That program promotes cancer detection, including no-cost mammograms and cervical cancer screenings for uninsured individuals across the state.

These programs have had success but have been dialed down in the past few years and could face more cuts in this legislative session. Funding for cancer research and early detection simply cannot be overly reliant on limited grant cycles and fluctuating federal and state appropriations. Cuts will curtail access, specifically for those who live in rural settings or who are low-income.

Rural patients will be especially at risk of being left behind with federal cuts to Medicaid, which will affect even their access to basic health care. Screenings must be affordable and available to as many as possible, not just those with high-end insurance plans in our urban centers.

Our state lawmakers will have the chance to make a statement this session, as cancer policy must be considered essential state infrastructure, a guaranteed investment. If it is treated as discretionary spending, more of our friends and neighbors will slip through the cracks and face the cancer diagnosis nobody wants — late stage, difficult to treat and perhaps hopeless.

This is a future we can avoid even in the toughest budgeting times.

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Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.