Lenny Santoro credits NIH research with saving his life longer than doctors expected. Duke Health's Dr. Daniel George warns cuts could stall that research and diminish life-saving discoveries in the field.
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Grace Hayba, WRAL health reporter
Four years after being given just two years to live, LennySantoro is still here.
Multiple days a week you’ll find him at the Duke Health& Fitness Center in Durham. He rotates from machine to machine, doing avariety of exercises to keep up his strength after undergoing chemotherapy forprostate cancer.
“I am in remission,” said Santoro. “I think it haseverything to do with the trial involved with exercise. I think the exercisecomponent of my treatment is remarkably important.”
Santoro told WRAL when he first started chemo, he was soweak he couldn’t take dishes out of the dishwasher.
The 72-year-old has now participated in three differentclinical trials. It was that research that he says has given him another chanceat life.
His genetic alteration is known as BRCA2. According to a 2020 studypublished in the National Institute of Medicine, BRCA2 is the gene mostcommonly found to have altered in males younger than 65. The study also foundthe gene was linked to shorter survival time.
Two of the clinical trials Santoro enrolled in involved drugsaimed at treating his cancer and another added an exercise routine to the mix.
“I took the same drug and the same regimen, the onlydifference was the trainer,” explained Santoro. “At the end of the 16 weeks, I felt better than at the beginning of that 16 weeks because theexercise mitigated the effects of the drugs.”
Santoro says hiscancer metastasized after his second clinical trial, leading him to trialnumber three.
“That was an experimental drug and within a year of startingthat third clinical trial, the metastases started clearing up. It was amazing,”he shared.
The drug eventually gained FDA approval after the trialSantoro was involved in.
“I shouldn’t be here. I thought I was going to die, and Iknew I was going to die, but these trials saved my life,” said Santoro. “I’mnow able to actually think about watching my granddaughter grow up.”
He is concerned about recent cuts to NIHresearch projects across the country.
“Prostate cancer is a tough, terrible disease. It gets intoyour bones, and people die in agony. Anything that would help is wonderful, andit’s all because of funded research,” said Santoro. “I would be dead.
"Maybethousands of other people who now have the opportunity to take these drugs thatI’ve taken, maybe they will have the chance to see their grandchildren grow up ortheir children get married.”
Dr. Daniel George, part of Lenny’s care team and a DukeHealth medical oncologist, said watching hundreds of research projects losefunding is causing concern within the medical community.
“The whole system is under fire. It’s not just one groupthat’s under fire,” said George.
The NIHGrant Terminations in 2025 table has tracked terminated grants frominstitutions nationwide upon directive from The White House. WRAL analyzed thedata and found more than 700 grants have been cancelled since February 2025.
George is also a research professor with the American CancerSociety whose work seeks to reduce disparities in prostate cancer.
The oncologist said federal funds used for research domore than fund trials.
“We have had some studies where we directly get money fromthe NIH and then we have other studies where we have other support – whetherfrom industries or other foundations – to support clinical research,” he said. “Allof those support the individual tasks and responsibilities for that study.”
George continued, “It’s like having a restaurant and thecustomer just comes in and pays for their entrée and drink, but what about theseating and lighting and staff preparation? You can’t create that experiencewithout all that infrastructure.”
The researcher noted federal cuts have slowed momentumacross scientific and medical innovation by eliminating roles held byindividuals with crucial expertise.
“People who do this kind of work have a decade or more oftraining to get to these points. When they leave this field and go to otherareas, we have to rebuild that workforce,” said George. “It’s really importantto recognize the impact of the people today in those jobs, but also the futuretrainees and future students that may want to go into a field if it’s not agrowth field.”
George theorized the impact of the cuts would have a largeimpact on the Triangle-area, saying, “We have such a critical mass ofcollaborative people working to move this field forward, and patientsspecifically in this area benefitting from that momentum and thatinfrastructure.”
Santoro’s outcome and eagerness to enroll in multipleclinical trials is a prime example of why the oncologist shared medical researchmust continue.
“The FDA specifically approved the drug for patients treatedlike Lenny. Now, we have hundreds of patients just in this area in NorthCarolina that are getting that drug for that genetic alteration that’sextending their lives,” said Santoro.
He added, “This is the cascading effect of research. Youchange the life of one person that’s in a trial, and that has permutations onmany patients to come. You do that outside of a clinical trial and it has noeffect outside of that one patient.”
When asked about what funding cuts have meant for hisresearch, George shared it has changed how researchers like him must look forfunding, but not their commitment to do so.
“It’s not going to stop us from asking those questions, it’sjust going to limit our ability to apply to the federal government for supportfor those kinds of questions,” said George. “Being the biggest supporter formedical research – the federal government –hurts that mission, but it won’tstop us from asking the questions that need to be asked.”
With more than two decades under his belt, George emphasizedhe remains dedicated to finding better ways to treat populations more at-riskof serious cancer outcomes, like in prostate cancer.
“Patients, particularly Black men in prostate cancer, arevastly underrepresented in clinical trials. We have made tremendous inroads inthat space and have momentum, and thankfully we have other support mechanismsto keep that going, but it’s certainly a setback when things like this getpoliticized,” he said.
The researcher shared he hopes the government and the publicwill recognize the importance of research funding and continue supportingongoing efforts to improve patient care.
“I have a lot of hope that we’re going to learn through thisprocess,” said George. “I hope the priorities we have right now that are maybemarginalized, we can revisit and say these are important priorities for us as asociety and as a medical field and continue to support. My hope is we willregain the momentum we are at-risk of losing, hopefully sooner rather than later.”
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