Earlier this year, President Obama announced his plan to have Vice President Joe Biden head up a task force that will lead us in an official national search for the cure for cancer. It is called The National Cancer Moonshot, and it is off to a great start.
A great first meeting of the #CancerMoonshot Task Force yesterday. Feeling energized and ready for the work ahead. pic.twitter.com/J0IvxFlSvZ
— Vice President Biden (@VP) February 2, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsOn February 1st, the White House elaborated on the project and announced its $1 billion plan to accelerate research efforts to find a cure for the disease, which will kill approximately 600,000 Americans in 2016. Through years of research, scientists have discovered that cancer is not a singular disease, but has the ability to manifest itself in many different ways. The same type of cancer can respond differently to treatment from one person to the next, and it is this realization that has spiked a need for more research into why that is happening and what we can do about it. The answer may not be a universal cure for all cancers, but linking specific treatments to individual cancers or even learning how to train the body to fight the cancer itself.
With these goals in mind, the moonshot initiative aims to collect as much useful and relevant research data as fast as possible, connecting many scientists and MDs who have a wealth of knowledge in this field together in order to make significant and quick advancements in prevention, detection, immunotherapy, combination therapy, and genomic analysis.
Graphic courtesy of: https://www.celgene.com/aiming-moon-cancer-trials/
Just last week, Vice President Joe Biden spoke passionately about the White House’s mission at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference in New Orleans. “I have the authority to do everything I can to put the federal government in a position where its total value-added, and it doesn’t get in your way,” Biden told the crowd. He promises to do his best to knock down the barriers that researchers have faced in their professions for many years in order to accomplish this goal.
Biden and his wife Jill are particularly focused on this cause because the disease has sadly burdened their family with great loss over the years. To make the biggest impact, they plan on uniting the best professionals in the field to work on the most promising cancer prevention and diagnostic solutions.
“Advances in new immunotherapies suggest that this approach is poised to become a critical part of a national cancer strategy.” @VP#AACR16
— CCS Associates, Inc. (@ccsainc) April 20, 2016
This is an exciting time in cancer research, and we are all looking forward to seeing how the cancer initiative progresses. If you, or anyone you know, are interested in getting involved with the moonshot initiative, you can send your ideas here.