Biden announces new public-private cancer initiatives on Moonshot anniversary
Abigail Adcox
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The Biden administration announced new public-private partnerships directed at cancer care and prevention on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of Biden reviving the “Cancer Moonshot,” which has a goal of cutting the death rate from cancer by 50% over the next 25 years.
Families with children battling cancer will be able to connect to support services, participate in research trials, and utilize a portable, standardized cancer health record through a public-private partnership overseen by the National Cancer Institute with the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, American Cancer Society, among other entities.
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The steps will draw “us closer to ending cancer as we know it today,” the White House said in a statement.
The Health Resources and Services Administration will also funnel $10 million toward health centers in underserved communities to improve access to cancer screenings and early detection services. Another public-private partnership dubbed “CancerX” from the Department of Health and Human Services will facilitate development of additional tools to detect cancer, connect cancer patients with others in their community, and improve cancer care coordination.
Biden reignited his Cancer Moonshot initiative last year after first launching it in 2016 as vice president to accelerate the progress against cancer, though did not announce any additional investments in the initiative at the time. The mission has been a personal one for Biden, whose son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.
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First lady Jill Biden is set to visit California later this week to promote the new initiatives.
Last year, 1.9 million people were diagnosed with cancer and 609,360 people died, according to the American Cancer Society. The cancer death rate has fallen 32% from 1991 to 2019, largely attributed to declines in smoking.