BOSTON (Associated Press) — President Joe Biden on Monday urged Americans to work together for a new “national goal” — his administration’s efforts to eradicate cancer “as we know it.”
At the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Biden delivered JFK’s famous speech 60 years ago, likening the space race to his own efforts, hoping it would also motivate Americans.
“He established a national purpose that could rally the American people and a common cause,” Biden said of Kennedy’s space effort.
Biden hopes to bring the United States closer to the goal he set in February of reducing cancer deaths in the United States by 50% over the next 25 years and dramatically improving people’s lives. caregivers and those suffering from cancer. Experts say the goal is achievable – with sufficient investment.
The president called his goal to develop Cancer treatments and treatments “Bold, ambitious and, I might add, totally doable.”
In his speech, Biden called on the private sector to make medicines more affordable, and to provide data more regularly. He made possible medical advances through research, funding, and focused data.
And he talked about a new, federally supported study looking for evidence for its use Blood tests Screening for multiple cancers–a potential change agent in diagnostic tests to dramatically improve early detection of cancers.
Danielle Carnival, the White House’s coordinator for these efforts, told The Associated Press that the administration sees huge potential in beginning a blood diagnostic study to identify cancers.
“One of the most promising technologies is to develop blood tests that promise to detect many cancers in a single blood test and to imagine the impact that could have on our ability to detect cancer early and in a more equitable way,” Carnival said. “We think the best way to get us to where that is is to test the technologies we have today and see what works and what really impacts longevity.”
In 2022, a American Cancer Society It is estimated that 1.9 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and 609,360 people will die of cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks cancer as the second highest killer of people in the United States after heart disease.
It’s a personal matter for Biden Lost his adult son Bo in 2015 for brain cancer. After Bo’s death, Congress passed Twenty-first century medicine lawwhich committed $1.8 billion over seven years to cancer research and was signed by President Barack Obama in 2016.
Obama appointed Biden, then Vice President, to run Mission Watch to channel cancer money as an acknowledgment of Biden’s grief as a parent and his desire to do something about it. Biden wrote in his memoir, “Promise Me Dad,” that he chose not to run for president in 2016 due to Beau’s death.
Despite Biden’s attempts to return to Kennedy and his space program, the current initiative lacks the same level of budget support. The Apollo program got huge public investments – more than $20 billion, or more than $220 billion in 2022 dollars adjusted for inflation. Biden’s efforts are more modest and dependent on private sector investment.
Nevertheless, he has tried to maintain momentum for investment in public health research, including the Advanced Research Projects Agency’s advocacy for health, along the lines of similar research and development initiatives that benefit the Pentagon and the intelligence community.
On Monday, Biden announced that Dr. Renee Figerzen is the inaugural director of ARPA-H, which has been tasked with studying therapies and potential treatments for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. diabetic and other diseases. He also announced a new program for National Cancer Institute scientists to provide funding for early-career scientists studying cancer treatments and treatments, with an emphasis on underrepresented groups and those from diverse backgrounds.
She was joined by President Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy who is now the US ambassador to Australia. He reiterated his administration’s efforts later on Monday at a fundraising event for the Democratic National Committee.
Experts agree that it is too early to say whether these new blood tests to detect cancer in healthy people will have any impact on cancer deaths. There have been no studies to prove that it reduces the risk of death from cancer. However, they say setting an ambitious goal is important.
Carnival said National Cancer Institute The study is designed so that any promising diagnostic findings can quickly be put into large-scale practice while the long-term study – expected to last up to a decade – progresses. The goal, she said, is to move closer to a future where cancers can be detected through routine blood work, reducing the need for more invasive and cumbersome procedures such as colonoscopy, thus saving lives.
Scientists now realize that cancer is not one disease, but hundreds of diseases that respond differently to different treatments. Some types of cancer contain biomarkers that can be targeted by existing drugs and that slow tumor growth. Many targets are waiting to be discovered.
How do we learn which treatments are effective in which disease subtypes? “This is for me my circumference,” said Donald Berry, a biostatistician at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “The possibilities are huge. The challenges are huge.”
Despite the challenges, he is optimistic about halving the cancer death rate over the next 25 years.
“We can reach that 50 percent goal by adequately slowing down the disease across various cancers without treating anyone,” Berry said. “If I bet if we’d get that 50% cut, I’d bet yes.”
Dr. Crystal Denlinger, chief scientific officer of National Comprehensive Cancer NetworkA group of elite cancer centers.
And any effort to reduce cancer mortality should focus on the biggest cancer killer, lung cancer. Mostly attributed to smoking, lung cancer now causes more cancer deaths than any other cancer. Of the 1,670 daily cancer deaths in the United States, more than 350 are from lung cancer.
Lung Cancer Screening helps. The American Cancer Society says such screening has helped cut the cancer death rate by 32% from its peak in 1991 to 2019, the most recent year for which figures are available.
But only 5% of eligible patients are screened for lung cancer.
In his speech, Biden highlighted provisions in the Democrats’ Health Care and Climate Change Act that the administration believes will lower drug prices out of pocket for some widely used cancer treatments. And celebrate new safeguards for veterans exposed to toxic pit burns, which cover potential diagnoses of cancer.
Dr. Michael Hassett Dana-Farber Cancer Institute In Boston, he said Biden’s goal of reducing cancer deaths can be achieved by following two parallel paths: one to find out and one to make sure as many people as possible reap the benefits of current treatments and preventative methods.
“If we can address both sides, both challenges, then significant progress is possible,” Hassett said.
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Johnson reported from Seattle.
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