Biden: A decade’s worth of cancer research possible in half the time

PHILADELPHIA — Fox Chase Cancer Center today hosted a Regional Cancer Moonshot Summit in conjunction with the National Cancer Moonshot Summit held in Washington, D.C., marking the first time that stakeholders representing all cancer types convened under one national charge.

President Barack Obama announced the launch of the national cancer moonshot initiative during his State of the Union address in January. Vice President Joe Biden — whose son, Beau, died of glioblastoma multiforme last summer — is leading the effort.

Joe Biden

Today’s regional event — which represented the geographic region encompassing Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. — highlighted the importance of translational research, data sharing, precision medicine and patient advocacy in cancer research and patient care.

“This is the first time that physicians, scientists, nurses, patient advocates and cancer survivors have all come together at one time, in extremely large numbers, to decide what changes we have to make in this fight,” Biden said during his address, which was live streamed from Howard University in Washington, D.C. “When the Moonshot was first announced, some said that I was being naive. But I firmly believe that we can do in the next 5 years what would normally take 10 years.”

Incremental gains

Biden focused on the need for day-to-day improvements, highlighting the fact that even incremental gains can mean a great deal to patients with cancer and their families.

“These are real life things,” Biden said. “Time matters. Days matter. Minutes matter. There is nothing antiseptic about this.”

Patients with cancer, as well as their families, often strive to become experts in the areas of oncology that apply to their diagnosis. This is information that can be translated into effective advocacy, Biden said.

“My mom used to say that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing,” Biden said. “Any time your loved one is in trouble, you do the same thing: You try to learn a little bit of something about the problem that is affecting them. I have had great tutors.”

While traveling around the country and world to speak with leaders in the cancer community, many world leaders and heads of state have expressed interest becoming part of the cancer moonshot, Biden said.

“I have been stunned at the response to the president’s announcement,” Biden said. “It’s not about the president, and it is not about me. It is about the intensity people feel about this subject. There is an overwhelming desire to have some concrete hope that there will be changes. There is a consensus that we have reached an inflection point.”

Despite these gains, costs have been prohibitive. To make additional advances, questions on costs need to be raised and addressed, Biden said.

“Treatments need to be affordable,” he said. “We need to change the entire path of how knowledge goes from small labs to pharmaceutical companies and treatment facilities. The cost of lifesaving drugs is astronomical. We need to come up with a better way.”

Answers to these questions and other research questions can be solved by the “enormous genius that resides in this room,” Biden said.

“Cancer is not going to be conquered by any one thing, but I believe we can win if we are devoted to winning,” he said. “The moonshot is you — all of you, jumping in to help prevent, change lifestyles, detect and treat cancer. It is everyone spending nights and weekends in their labs, looking for the next breakthrough. The moonshot is carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of people who want to see us succeed not someday, but now. With the work you are doing together, you are fulfilling those hopes.”

Data sharing

The National Cancer Moonshot Summit served as a platform to announce several new initiatives to streamline cancer research and foster communication between physicians and scientists from hospitals and universities around the country.

Many of these programs serve as a means to facilitate data sharing.

ASH today announced plans to create an infrastructure to share research and treatment data for multiple myeloma.

“ASH is honored to bring to the table the collective experience and knowledge of over 16,000 hematologists in nearly 100 countries as we make unprecedented advancements in cancer research over the next 5 years,” Charles S. Abrams, MD, ASH president and Francis C. Wood professor of medicine at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said in a press release. “We are incredibly proud that the vice president has asked ASH to help participate in this important effort.”

Charles S. Abrams

The ASH initiative will bring together data from experts at four leading U.S. multiple myeloma treatment and research facilities — The Multiple Myeloma Research Institute, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic and University of Arkansas Myeloma Institute — as well as international partners to design a simple and accessible data-sharing platform.

“By freeing the knowledge that is trapped in the databanks of individual research teams, universities, countries, and continents, we will gain a deeper understanding of the ways that specific diseases respond to minute genetic variances,” Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, ASH president-elect and program director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said in the press release. “Through collaboration, cancer researchers can come together across specialties and really get a grasp of what truly works, how it works, and when we can best utilize existing and experimental treatments to conquer cancer in untold numbers of patients.”

In addition, Biden announced a partnership with Foundation Medicine to release approximately 18,000 genomic profiles from adults with cancer from its personal database, FoundationCORE, into the NCI’s Genomic Data Commons portal. The company will make these data available in the hopes of accelerating discoveries in precision medicine.

“We are honored to participate in this important global effort to transform patient care and to be the first commercial entity to contribute data to the NCI’s Genomics Data Commons, which we believe underscores the quality, integrity and richness of the genomics information contained in FoundationCORE,” Vincent Miller, MD, chief medical officer of Foundation Medicine, said in a press release. “The amount of genomics information within FoundationCORE has reached unparalleled scale. The insights gleaned from this data release will be instrumental in accelerating research and development efforts for targeted agents and immunotherapies.”

Additional perspectives

The fact that Biden and his family were personally affected by cancer ensures his devotion to the moonshot, comedian Carol Burnett — whose daughter, Carrie Hamilton, died of lung cancer in 2002 — said during her introduction of Biden.

“As a parent who lost my Carrie to cancer, I’ve always felt like Joe Biden was in my corner,” Burnett said. “He is what the Cancer Moonshot is all about. He knows cancer. He has lived through cancer. And he knows that if we fight together, we can have a world without cancer.”

Biden’s experience as the parent of a patient with cancer makes him an ideal advocate for cancer research, Burnett added.

“Hope means many different things to different people,” Burnett said. “But to the [patient with cancer] and their family, hope is everything. Joe Biden understands this.”

During today’s summit, Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, deputy cancer center director in the translational research program and professor of medicine at Fox Chase Cancer Center, as well as a HemOnc Today Editorial Board member, echoed Biden regarding the need for cancer researchers to work together.

Wafik S. El-Deiry

“We need to double our rate of progress,” El-Deiry said. “We need to work together to solve problems. It took decades to acquire our current understanding of the hallmarks of cancer and the work of thousands of scientists around the world. Research is about innovation, about finding the truth.”

The improvement of clinical trials through stronger enrollment and recruiting strategies is one approach, El-Deiry said.

“Fewer than 10% of patients are entered on clinical trials,” he said. “Patients have many issues they face during their journey with cancer, and as cancer survivors. Every breakthrough testing has to be tested in clinical trials.”

The cancer moonshot has revived the national conversation on cancer and the need for research, according to Richard I. Fisher, MD, president and CEO of Fox Chase Cancer Center.

“With the federal government’s reinvigorated commitment to cancer care and funding, we are poised and ready to discover the next breakthroughs and develop the newest treatments for [patients with cancer],” Fisher said. “I look forward to engaging and productive discussions as we now move ahead with vigor as part of the cancer moonshot.”

A great need exists to support cancer research on the national level, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., whose congressional district includes Fox Chase Cancer Center, said during the summit. He described the cancer moonshot as one of the most important and ambitious health care initiatives ever undertaken.

“Not only will this be one of the greatest achievements in human history, it will give hope to a world that is frequently without it,” Boyle said during a speech. “Anything I can do to be one small part of this great, bold effort, I am happy to do.” – by Cameron Kelsall