Biden Makes Another Push for Cancer Moonshot Initiative

TUESDAY, Sept. 13, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- President Joe Biden made a renewed push for his cancer moonshot initiative on Monday.

Speaking at the famed John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Biden likened JFK's space race to his own effort to slash cancer rates by 50 percent in the next 25 years. "He established a national purpose that could rally the American people and a common cause," Biden said of Kennedy's space effort. "And I believe we can usher in the same unwillingness to postpone, the same national purpose, that will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills to end cancer as we know it and even cure cancers once and for all."

In his speech, Biden said the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) has launched a study that will look at using blood tests to screen against multiple cancers.

Danielle Carnival, the White House coordinator for the cancer effort, told the Associated Press that the Biden administration sees huge potential in such blood tests. "One of the most promising technologies has been the development of blood tests that offer the promise of detecting multiple cancers in a single blood test and really imagining the impact that could have on our ability to detect cancer early and in a more equitable way," Carnival said.

Carnival added that the National Cancer Institute study was designed so that any promising findings could be quickly put into clinical practice while the longer study -- expected to last up to a decade -- continues. She said the goal is to detect cancers through routine blood work instead of invasive tests and biopsies.

While touting the cancer initiative on Monday, Biden announced that Renee Wegrzyn, M.D., would become the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which has been tasked with studying potential treatments and cures for cancers, Alzheimer disease, diabetes, and other diseases. Biden also announced a new NCI program that will fund young scientists studying treatments and cures for cancer, with a focus on underrepresented groups.

Associated Press Article