President Obama announced during his State of the Union address Tuesday that he wants to launch an initiative to do just that, and he has appointed Biden to lead it.
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With his cancer research initiative announced publicly, he put Vice-president Joe Biden to spearhead the efforts.
Officially, the vice president was in Houston to speak about infrastructure spending and raise money for Democrats.
Varmus is the former director of the National Cancer Institute that Nixon’s “war on cancer” created. His conclusion: The hold-up, in large part, lies in the cancer world itself.
It’s a personal battle Vice President Joe Biden understands after losing his son to brain cancer. “Well, there’s four kinds”. Even some ovarian cancers and lymphomas that don’t go away completely can now be treated more like a chronic illness that can be managed if watched and treated. But in an interview aired on CNN Monday night, Biden said he has met with over 200 researchers and philanthropists, and hopes to serve as a “convener” who can break down walls and make advances easier to achieve. That odyssey begins this Friday in Philadelphia.
WATCH his tour and comments LIVE on this page at 3 p.m.
Though many Americans were asking one another, “What did he just say?” scientists and physicians in search of cancer cures were cheering. “It’s decades and more”. “He’s in his problem-solving mode”.
“Over a twenty year period I’m very hopeful we’ll have successes and this depends on the financing and the dedication of the medical community”, said Bonner. One of those pledges includes his work to help find a cure for cancer. Some wondered whether Biden was raising expectations in a way he could later regret. “I know that we can help solidify a genuine global commitment to end cancer as we know it today”. “For the families that we can still save, let’s make America a country that cures cancer once and for all”, President Obama stated during his address.
Vast progress has been made in recent years.
“With almost 1.7 million people in the United States diagnosed with cancer each year, and the incidence of cancer expected to rise to 2.3 million cases per year by 2030, it is imperative that we do all we can to bring more effective treatments from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside as quickly as possible”, Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FASCO, chief medical officer for ASCO, said in a press release.
“This is our moonshot”, says Biden. It is the right initiative, at the right time, with the right leader – and a test of our collective will to confront a disease that affects every American, directly or indirectly, over the course of our lifetimes. Other drugs are also being developed that doctors say are changing the way that cancer is fought inside the body.
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Following the loss of his son, Biden announced a year ago that he would not run for president. University of Chicago’s Dr. Tanguy Siewert is developing new therapies that target one’s own immune system to fight cancer.
