It was one of the more dramatic moments of Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address: the president turned to Joe Biden to appoint the vice-president to lead an effort to cure cancer “once and for all”. “For decades, Penn Medicine has been on the forefront of cancer research, and its top-notch staff, doctors, and researchers continue to lead our country’s innovative efforts around cancer treatment and research”, Congressman Fattah said. The senior policy director at the American Association for Cancer Research, Jon Retzlaff, expressed his excitement on the funding and said that now they will need to sustain it. He said that the increased funding would make it possible for them to fund various health programs, which was not possible earlier because of budget limitations and higher cost of health services.
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“I think one of the things our nation really needs to do is do a Manhattan project on cancer if you will. There is a lot of fascinating research going on in different states about cancer”, Dr. Willman said.
In a statement that same day, Biden said several cutting-edge areas of research – including cancer immunotherapy, genomics, and combination therapies – could be revolutionary. The institutes will receive a total of $32.1 billion in 2016, an increase of 2 billion over the previous year, which includes an additional $264 million for cancer. Biden wrote that part of the plan is to break down silos and bring all the cancer fighters together to share information and work together. Currently, only 5% of cancer patients end up in in a clinical trial, and most aren’t given access to their own data, according to Biden.
Today, Congressman Chaka Fattah (PA-02) joined Vice President Joe Biden at the University of Pennsylvania in his district as the Administration launched a new initiative to find a cure for cancer.
Far less progress has been made against pancreatic and ovarian cancers, harder to catch before they spread, or brain cancer, which killed Biden’s son Beau.
“What I’m finding is that there still are stovepipes that exist”, he said, noting that he wants to fight “cancer politics” that can prevent important information sharing across companies or universities.
Medical experts suggested that the federal government could help cancer doctors and researchers by facilitating a more centralized source of the data about the illness.
Five-year survival rates for most cancers are increasing.
“I’m a realist and I see diabetes as a coming problem, cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, Alzheimers, all worthy of more funding”, said Pershouse.
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“We can do so much more”, he said.
