washington — President Joe Biden on Tuesday visited Louisiana’s infamous “Cancer Alley” to strike at what he identified as a top priority of his dwindling presidency: announcing $150 million in research funding toward the goal of dramatically reducing cancer deaths in the United States.
The Cancer Moonshot is an initiative close to Biden’s heart. Both he and first lady Jill Biden have had brushes with skin cancers. And in 2015, an aggressive brain cancer took the life of their eldest son, Beau.
“We’re moving quickly,” Biden said of the initiative, which has a goal of reducing the U.S. cancer death rate by at least half by 2047. “Because we know that all families touched by cancer are in a race against time.”
Cancer is the second-biggest cause of death worldwide. The National Cancer Institute predicts that 2 million Americans will be diagnosed this year with the immune-mediated disease, which can manifest in organs, bone marrow and blood and which comes in hundreds of different varieties.
“Cancer touches us all,” the first lady said. “When Joe and I lost our son to brain cancer, we decided to turn our pain into purpose. We wanted to help families like ours so that they won’t have to experience this terrible loss, and as president, Joe has brought his own relentless optimism to the Biden Cancer Moonshot to end cancer as we know it. It’s ambitious, but it’s also within our reach – maybe not yet, but one day soon.”
Biden launched the initiative when he was vice president. Since he restored the program as president, the research agency he created has invested more than $400 million in the cause.
Cancer advocates praised the move but stressed the need for long-term engagement.
“We’ve made tremendous strides in how we prevent, detect, treat and survive cancer, but there is still much work to be done to improve the lives of those touched by this disease,” said Dr. Karen E. Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
“Cancer cases are estimated to hit an all-time high this year, and we cannot relent in driving forward public policies that will address this,” Knudsen said. “Funding more researchers across the country focused on more effective and innovative treatments will bring us closer to future cancer breakthroughs and ending cancer as we know it, for everyone.”
And cancer is often compounded by environmental causes – such as those in the 140-kilometer (85-mile) stretch of communities between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, home to a string of major fossil fuel and petrochemical operations.
Karl Minges, associate dean in the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven, told VOA that while the disease itself doesn’t discriminate, social factors often make it hit harder in lower-income communities.
“Any time that money from the federal government and publicity is put on a topic, I think it’s something that has the ability to actually make a significant difference,” he told VOA.
And, he said, the fact that this federal money is going toward research institutions – and not private pharmaceutical companies – means the lessons learned can be shared well beyond the United States.
“The U.S. is always on sort of the cutting edge with regard to [research and development] of new drugs and treatments and methodologies,” he said.
“But by giving the money to the institutes, it’s sort of available as public funding for researchers to access, and anytime that’s the case, there’s an imperative, whether it’s a clinical trial or it’s a an observational study, that the results are in the public domain, so that can be then subsumed by other countries outside of the United States who face similar issues,” Minges said.
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