President Joe Biden will announce new actions as part of his cancer moonshot goal of halving the cancer death rate in the US by 2047.
President Biden will meet with his Cancer Cabinet on Wednesday to announce several new initiatives. The White House says $240 million will be invested in research projects to prevent, detect, treat and cure cancer.
The White House also said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investing $15 million in programs to reduce the effects of menthol and other tobacco products. There will also be programs to increase smoking cessation resources for disadvantaged communities.
The Agency for Advanced Research Projects for Health will also streamline biomedical data so that researchers can more easily find the information they are looking for.
“This initiative will pioneer prototype technologies capable of seamlessly searching cancer datasets, unlocking unprecedented disease detection, prevention and treatment opportunities, reducing the time required to integrate new data sources from months to days will, and improve data utility by the research community – so we can break down existing data silos and learn from more patients’ experiences, the White House said.
Additionally, the Biden administration says NGOs will announce several initiatives related to President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative.
Among them, the HealthWell Foundation is set to provide more than $300 million to help underinsured oncology patients offset out-of-pocket drug costs.
CVS is also expected to expand its smoking cessation programs to a dozen states.
The American Cancer Society will create a new oncology professional navigator curriculum and certification program to help connect cancer patients to the services they need. The American Cancer Society said it was “excited to support and advance” the Cancer Moonshot initiative.
Earlier this year, the American Cancer Society noted that cancer death rates in the US have declined by 33% since 1991, averting an estimated 3.8 million cancer deaths.
President Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015. After her death, then-President Barack Obama tasked Biden with leading efforts to reduce cancer rates in the US.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 1,603,844 new cancer cases in the United States in 2020, and 602,347 people died from cancer.