A Tribute to the Cancer Communicators at NCI

The government just fired its cancer translators. Let that sink in.

Not the marketers. Not the admin. The communicators. The ones who turned cancer research into words patients could actually understand. The ones who made sure Cancer.gov didn’t read like a grant application. The ones who answered the damn phone when someone Googled “stage 4 survival rate” at 2am and didn’t know where else to turn.

They were fired. Quietly. Bureaucratically. Disgracefully.

This matters to me because I’ve spent 30 years watching cancer kill people who never even had a fighting chance at comprehension. You can fund all the science you want, but if no one explains it to real people in real language, it’s academic masturbation.

These weren’t disposable FTEs. They were the voice of the National Cancer Institute. The ones who explained the difference between hope and hype. Who broke down clinical trials. Who made sure you didn’t need a PhD to know what the hell your body was doing.

And now, gone.

You know what cancer patients don’t need? DOGE.

This isn’t “unfortunate.” It’s negligent. It’s dangerous. And it sends a brutal message: the science matters more than the people it’s meant to save.

I know many of the names on that list. These folks were the gold standard. We’re not talking fluff writers. We’re talking mission-driven professionals who treated public understanding like a life-saving intervention—because it is.

And they were shown the door like expired toner cartridges.

So if you're wondering what the hell is going on at NCI, join the club. If you're hiring and give a damn about getting health communication right, look at this list. These people made the system work.

Now the system just spit them out.

What does that tell you?

SOURCE ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/science-isnt-complete-until-its-communicated-tribute-nci-sabrina-w1jue/?trackingId=cz3ssPjqRM%2BUl%2FFWVv1MpQ%3D%3D