President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 30 doubling the current federal budget for research into childhood cancer using artificial intelligence, building on a 2019 initiative he established to create a data system to collect, standardize and share information on every child diagnosed with cancer in the United States.

The Childhood Cancer Data Initiative, which was launched during Trump’s first term, currently receives $50 million annually in funding by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health and is part of a 10-year federal commitment.

The new executive order infuses another $50 million into the program annually and directs the Make America Healthy Again Commission to work with the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

"No family should have to fight cancer without outdated tools or without access to the very best science," said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "For too long families have fought childhood cancer while our systems lag behind."

The quality of AI applications depend on the strength of their underlying data, said Michael Kratsios, director of OSTP.

“President Trump's foresight positioned us today to leverage AI to revolutionize clinical research and patient care like never before," he said.

Using the data infrastructure, researchers can deploy artificial intelligence to improve clinical trials, sharpen diagnoses, fine tune treatments, unlock cures and strengthen prevention strategies, Kratsios said.

Pediatric cancer is number one cause of death by disease among children and adolescents in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. Kennedy said childhood cancers have increased by 40% since 1975.

This year, nearly 9,500 children will be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S., said the director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

"The investment in artificial intelligence that the NIH will make as a consequence of this executive order has the promise to fundamentally transform how these children are treated," Bhattacharya said. "It's not about collecting data alone. It's about giving families hope."

Trump's budget proposal for 2026 seeks $94.7 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services agencies, a reduction of about 26% from the 2025 level and cuts programs and staff at agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump doubles funding for AI-enabled pediatric cancer research

Reporting by Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect