U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday urged Americans to come together for a new 'national purpose' -- his administration's effort to end cancer 'as we know it.'
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on the cancer moonshot initiative at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, on Sept. 12, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday urged Americans to come together for a new "national purpose" -- his administration's effort to end cancer "as we know it."
In his speech, Biden called on the private sector to make drugs more affordable, and data more regularly available. He ticked off medical advancements possible with focused research, funding and data. In 2022, the American Cancer Society estimates, 1.9 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed and 609,360 people will die of cancer diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rank cancer as the second-highest killer of people in the U.S. after heart disease.
Still, he's tried to maintain momentum for investments in public health research, including championing the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, modeled after similar research and development initiatives benefiting the Pentagon and intelligence community. Carnival said the National Cancer Institute study was designed so that any promising diagnostic results could be swiftly put into widespread practice while the longer-term study -- expected to last up to a decade -- progresses. She said the goal was to move closer to a future where cancers could be detected through routine bloodwork, potentially reducing the need for more invasive and burdensome procedures like colonoscopies, and therefore saving lives.