With over $7.2 billion going to be invested in cancer research in the U.S. during 2025, the non-profit organization SmileHub has released new reports on the Best Charities for Research and the Best States for Cancer Research in 2025.
This is a burning topic. Over 611,000 people died from cancer in the U.S. in 2024, and around 2 million more cases were diagnosed, according to the latest data from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
To highlight the best states for cancer research and those that have room to improve, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 13 key metrics. The data set ranges from the number of clinical trials per capita to the cancer incidence rate to the quality of cancer treatment hospitals.
The U.S. government has approved a budget of over $7.2 billion for the National Cancer Institute for 2025. However, an important factor iswith regional disparities and such variances are clear whne different states are examined.
To determine the best states for cancer research, and to produce comparative rankings, SmileHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions:
1) Research Funding & Resources,
2) Research Output & Impact,
3) Health Care Infrastructure & Support.
The ten best states for cancer research were found to be:
| 1. Massachusetts | ||
| 2. New York | ||
| 3. California | ||
| 4. Colorado | ||
| 5. Maryland | ||
| 6. Pennsylvania | ||
| 7. Virginia | ||
| 8. Oregon | ||
| 9. Utah | ||
| 10. Minnesota |
Standing in third place, California has the most cancer centers per capita – 5.2 times more than Georgia, which has the fewest cancer centers per capita. However, California does not score high in all categories: Nebraska has the most clinical trials per capita – 4.2 times more than California, which has the fewest clinical trials per capita.
The data set ranges from the number of clinical trials per capita to the cancer incidence rate to the quality of cancer treatment hospitals.
The states with the worst scores were:
- Idaho
- Nevada
- Louisiana
- Arkansas
- Wyoming
- West Virginia
- Kentucky
- Alaska
- Oklahoma
- Mississippi
At the bottom is Mississippi. This is on a number of accounts. One example is its contrast to Utah, which has the lowest cancer mortality rate – 1.5 times lower than Mississippi, which has the highest mortality rate.
