CHICAGO – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will honor leaders from government and the advocacy community with 2025 AACR Distinguished Public Service Awards at the AACR Annual Meeting 2025, to be held April 25-30 at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) is being recognized for her national leadership in advancing cancer prevention and treatment and her deep commitment to expanding access to screenings, reducing health disparities, and strengthening the biomedical research enterprise. As ranking member of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, she plays a critical role in shaping federal funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other key health programs.
In the 118th Congress, Baldwin introduced the bipartisan Screening for Communities to Receive Early and Equitable Needed Services (SCREENS) for Cancer Act to reauthorize and strengthen the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. The bill aimed to ensure that underserved women have access to lifesaving cancer screenings and diagnostic services. More recently, she hosted a Senate forum examining the ongoing instability at NIH and its implications for research institutions and patients nationwide.
Baldwin continues to be one of the most consistent and impactful champions of NIH and the cancer research community on Capitol Hill, as she has been throughout her congressional career.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) is being recognized for her outstanding advocacy for cancer research, early detection, and patient care, particularly in childhood cancer. As chair of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, she has played a key role in securing NIH funding to advance cancer research.
She co-authored the bipartisan Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research (STAR) Act, the most comprehensive childhood cancer legislation ever passed, directing over $120 million to pediatric cancer research and survivor support. Capito also cosponsored a bipartisan resolution designating September 2024 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, aiming to highlight the critical need for continued research and support for affected families.
Capito’s advocacy is deeply personal. Her husband lost his grandmother, mother, and father to cancer, further fueling her commitment to ensuring more families have access to early detection and innovative treatments.
Larry Saltzman, MD, is a retired physician and former executive research director for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He is being recognized for his exceptional advocacy for NIH funding. Saltzman was diagnosed in 2010 with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of cancer that becomes resistant to treatment and is generally not curable. At the time of his diagnosis, he was given five to eight years to live. Because of innovations in treatment made possible by NIH funding, he has surpassed this estimate by seven years.
Saltzman shared his story in the AACR Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Research and Patient Care in early 2022. More recently, he published an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee and spoke with policymakers at Baldwin’s Senate forum about the importance of NIH-funded clinical trials, especially for patients with incurable cancer who need advances in treatment to outpace the progression of their disease.
Saltzman’s powerful personal story is a moving reminder of what is at stake when federal funding for cancer research is threatened. As he said in his congressional testimony last month:
“I speak here today not only for myself, but for every patient who has ever held out hope that research would buy them another year—or another decade. Without robust, sustained, and predictable funding from the NIH, those bridges to the next treatment won’t be there when patients need them.”
The recipients will be honored during the meeting’s Opening Ceremony on Sunday, April 27, which begins at 7:45 a.m. CT.