Cancer immunotherapy — NIH Funding Overview
Reviewed by Dr. Meng ZhaoLast reviewed June 9, 2026Data refreshed June 9, 2026Editorial standards
Cancer immunotherapy has become the largest single category of translational cancer research at NIH, encompassing checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cell therapies (CAR-T, TCR-T, TIL), cancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses, and combination strategies. NCI is the primary funder, with substantial NIAID and NHLBI activity in CAR-T and T-cell biology.
Funding snapshot
Award data on this page reflects a snapshot of NIH RePORTER records last refreshed on June 9, 2026. For live numbers, use the interactive trends view.
Why this matters now
Following the FDA approvals of pembrolizumab (2014), CAR-T therapies (2017–present), and TIL therapy (2024), NIH has reorganized significant fractions of its translational portfolio toward mechanism-of-resistance research, biomarker discovery, and rare-tumor application. The Cancer Moonshot reauthorization in 2023 reinforced this direction.
How NIH funds this area
NCI mechanisms commonly seen in this space include R01, R37 (MERIT), U01 (cooperative), P01 (program project), SPORE (P50), and U54 (specialized centers). The data below shows awards mentioning cancer immunotherapy across all NIH institutes.
How to use this funding brief
Use this page to decide whether a proposal is primarily about immune mechanism, therapeutic platform, resistance, biomarker selection, or a specific tumor. That distinction changes whether broad NCI programs, disease-focused portfolios, or center mechanisms are the most useful comparison set.
Official source: National Cancer Institute: Immunotherapy to Treat Cancer
Search tactics
- Search "CAR-T" or "checkpoint inhibitor" for technique-specific subsets.
- Combine with tumor types ("pancreatic cancer immunotherapy", "glioblastoma immunotherapy") to find disease-focused labs.
- P50 SPORE searches surface cancer center programs that include immunotherapy projects.
What the data shows
- Funding peaked in FY2025 at $461M. The FY2025 total of $461M is +42% versus FY2021.
- The number of awards fell about 3% in FY2025 even as total dollars grew — funding is concentrating in fewer, larger awards.
- About 86% of FY2026 dollars so far are renewals and continuations. Mid-year snapshots overweight renewals because non-competing continuations are issued early in the fiscal year, but the share still indicates how much of the portfolio is committed before new applications compete.
- The average FY2025 award was $624K, and R01 was the most common mechanism in the recent window.
Editorial read
Awards that explicitly mention cancer immunotherapy grew faster than almost any oncology category we track — up roughly 42% from FY2021 to FY2025 — but the absolute total understates the field, because much checkpoint, CAR-T, and vaccine work is indexed under tumor-specific language instead. Treat this page as the visible tip of a larger NCI translational portfolio, and pair it with tumor-type searches before sizing the opportunity.
Yearly NIH Awards for Cancer immunotherapy
Counts and total funding per fiscal year from NIH RePORTER. Recent fiscal years may understate final totals because of reporting lag.
| Fiscal Year | Project Count | Total Funding | Avg Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2021 | 665 | $324,700,955 | $488,272 |
| FY2022 | 734 | $405,014,844 | $551,791 |
| FY2023 | 778 | $441,561,496 | $567,560 |
| FY2024 | 764 | $430,096,276 | $562,953 |
| FY2025 | 739 | $461,019,798 | $623,843 |
| FY2026 | 265 | $152,375,598 | $575,002 |
Open the full interactive trends view for Cancer immunotherapy →
Top NIH Institutes (last 90 days)
Which NIH institutes funded the most Immunotherapy projects in the most recent 90-day window.
| Institute | Awards (90d) | Funding (90d) |
|---|---|---|
| NIH | 135 | $92,564,679 |
| VA | 1 | $0 |
Common Activity Codes (last 90 days)
Which grant mechanisms (R01, R21, U01, P30, etc.) appeared most often for Immunotherapy in the recent period.
Most Active Institutions (last 90 days)
Universities and research organizations with the most Immunotherapy awards in the most recent 90-day window.
- JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY — 8 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR — 8 awards
- STANFORD UNIVERSITY — 6 awards
- WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY — 5 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA — 5 awards
- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY — 4 awards
- CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA — 4 awards
- UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER — 4 awards
Recently Awarded Cancer immunotherapy Grants
Twelve most recent awards mentioning Immunotherapy, drawn from NIH RePORTER. Click through to Find PIs for the full investigator search.
Unraveling the Molecular Mechanisms of Immunotherapy-Associated Myocarditis
1R01CA305864-01A1Chunru Lin · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR, TX · $706,739 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · R01Project Summary Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer treatment by enhancing immune-based anti- tumor responses. Despite their efficacy, especially when used in combination, ICI treatment can lead to immune- related toxicities, which can affect any organ. ICI-myocarditis refers to inflammation of the heart, is a particularly severe…
Genetic and immunological dissection of coinhibitory crosstalks between human T cells and cancer cells
5K00CA274708-05Masato Ogishi · STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CA · $103,162 · awarded Jun 5, 2026 · K00PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The goal of this proposal is to identify novel coinhibitory checkpoint molecules operating orthogonally to currently targeted checkpoints in cancer patients, such as PD-1. Despite the unprecedented success of checkpoint blockade immunotherapy as a therapeutic approach against multiple types of cancer, significant inter-individual…
Identification and Characterization of Mutation-Induced Alternative Splicing Events in Cancer Using Multi-Omics Data
1R03CA313545-01Song Cao · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, MO · $155,500 · awarded Jun 3, 2026 · R03Identification and Characterization of Mutation-Induced Alternative Splicing Events in Cancer Using Multi-Omics Data Project Summary The goal of this project is to discover mutation-induced alternative splicing events (MAS), understand their functional relevance, and identify neoantigens arising from these events to advance cancer immunotherapy. Large-scale…
Acetylation modulates T cell receptor signaling
1R01CA300144-01A1Sungjune Kim · MAYO CLINIC JACKSONVILLE, FL · $498,582 · awarded Jun 3, 2026 · R01PROJECT SUMMARY Title: Acetylation modulates T cell receptor signaling PA-25-301 NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) Suboptimal TCR signaling is one of the major immune resistance mechanisms hampering the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Accordingly, restoration of optimal TCR signaling is of crucial importance to overcome…
Actively engaging NK cells during virotherapy to induce neoantigen-specific antitumor immunity
5R01CA269002-05SHAUN ZHANG · UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON, TX · $384,242 · awarded Jun 3, 2026 · R01PROJECT SUMMARY Significant progress in recent years on the development of oncolytic virotherapy has led to the FDA approval of a type I herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) based oncolytic virus (Talimogene Laherparepvec or T-VEC) for the treatment of advanced melanoma. However, it has become increasingly clear that there is a need to further improve the current…
Regional Oncology Research Center
5P30CA006973-63WILLIAM NELSON · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, MD · $7,841,630 · awarded Jun 3, 2026 · P30The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC) at Johns Hopkins is dedicated to cancer research, education and training, and patient care, with the overarching goal of creating and applying new knowledge to improve prevention, screening, detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in Maryland (the SKCCC catchment area) and throughout the nation and…
Elucidating roles of TRPS1 in regulating antitumor immunity
1R01CA311117-01Casey Ager · MAYO CLINIC ARIZONA, AZ · $657,698 · awarded Jun 3, 2026 · R01PROJECT SUMMARY Overcoming regulatory T cell (Treg) mediated immunosuppression in tumors remains a critical, yet elusive goal for cancer therapy. In prior work, we identified a novel role for the developmental transcription factor TRPS1 (transcriptional repressor GATA binding 1) in promoting Treg function within human and murine tumors. There is currently…
Engineering T Cell Adoptive Therapy for Glioblastoma
5R01NS130209-04Gavin Dunn · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL, MA · $645,927 · awarded Jun 3, 2026 · R01PROJECT SUMMARY This proposal centers on the use of T cell receptor (TCR) directed therapy in preclinical glioblastoma (GBM) models. GBM remains a difficult cancer to treat, and clinical outcomes remain poor. However, despite the seismic influence of immunotherapy in cancer, there remain no FDA approved immunotherapies for GBM. There are several reasons…
Mechanisms of epigenetic memory in human cells
5R35GM155044-03James Nunez · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA · $401,250 · awarded Jun 2, 2026 · R35Project Summary/Abstract Almost every cell in a human being has the same DNA sequence yet different cells vary widely in which genes are expressed. In addition to the genetic code, human cells contain chemical modifications on DNA called epigenetics that can dictate cell type identity and cell fate. The most abundant epigenetic modification in the human…
Immunosuppressive mechanisms of intratumoral regulatory T cells
5R01CA292818-02Michel DuPage · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA · $618,928 · awarded Jun 2, 2026 · R01PROJECT SUMMARY Immune-based cancer therapies have revolutionized the treatment of cancer. However, immunosuppression within tumors remains a major obstacle for their success. Regulatory T cells (Tregs), an immunosuppressive subset of CD4+ T cells, are heavily recruited to most tumors where they may suppress antitumor immune responses directly within…
Regulation of anti-tumor immunity by CX3CL1
1R37CA304560-01A1Melissa Reeves · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH, UT · $518,090 · awarded Jun 1, 2026 · R37Cancer immunotherapy has become a pillar of cancer treatment, but fails to deliver benefit for many patients. There is thus a critical need to identify and understand the mechanisms that limit the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy, and how they can be overcome. Our lab previously set out to identify mechanisms by which tumor cells can impede the anti-tumor T…
Controlling tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cell function by the IL-17-Ybx1 signaling pathway
1R01CA304166-01A1Kepeng Wang · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT, CT · $484,918 · awarded Jun 1, 2026 · R01Project Summary/Abstract: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play key roles in immune homeostasis, tumor development, and cancer therapy through suppression of inflammation. How the inflammatory tumor environment shapes the behavior of Tregs in turn, is less known. This knowledge gap precludes our ability to selectively block the activity of tumor infiltrating…
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