President Joe Biden will be relaunching the cancer moonshot project in order to renew his pledge of “ending the cancer as we know it.”
President Biden will officially announce on Wednesday that the original “cancer moonshot” program initiated by former President Barack Obama is back!
Biden will announce the relaunch aiming to reduce the death rate, bolster prevention and research, and screening of cancer across America. According to the administration, the aim is to lower the death rate by 50 percent over the next twenty-five years.
According to recent data, approximately 600,000 people every year die from cancer in the United States of America.
The official announcement will be made today in an event organized at the White House’s East Room. The president of America will be joined by the first lady, Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman.
According to close sources, this initiative is very personal for both the president and vice president of America. President Biden lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 whereas Harris’ mother died of cancer of colon in 2009.
Biden was part of the cancer moonshot program when it was first announced under the leadership of President Barack Obama.
According to a senior Biden administration official, the cancer moonshot program is undergoing some serious revamp as “a lot has changed that makes it possible to set really ambitious goals.”
The administration official also stated that “the administration is “very confident that there will be robust funding going forward,” arguing that few issues garner as much bipartisan support as cancer research.”
A “cancer cabinet” will be announced which will have officials coordinate cancer-relevant activities from different federal departments. The cancer cabinet will be responsible for speeding up the liquid biopsies which are necessary to detect cancer through simple blood tests.
The financial aspect of the program is yet to be determined. The administration is “very confident” that Congress will be providing the funding as anti-cancer measures had won bipartisan support in the past as well.
“We need to understand that if we’re really serious about this, we need to make sure there’s funding available to develop the new technologies and implement them,” said Margaret Foti, chief executive of the American Association for Cancer Research. “New technologies are expensive.”
Cancer experts have welcomed the relaunch of cancer moonshot stating that this is a very realistic approach to combat the challenge in hands.“We have had some disappointment with overly ambitious goals,” said Clifford A. Hudis, chief executive of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “I think realism and maybe even over-delivering is better.”
