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Biden Cancer Initiative seeks to inject urgency into cancer research, foster hope for patients
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Former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, PhD, launched the Biden Cancer Initiative today.
The venture is intended to further progress in cancer prevention, detection, treatment and care, while reducing disparities in patient outcomes.
“The Biden Cancer Initiative is essentially a continuation of the [national cancer moonshot initiative], but there is no one now running day-to-day [operations] in the administration, coordinating all of these different efforts that are going on, as well as the private sector,” Joe Biden said during the launch announcement, streamed on the initiative’s Facebook page.
“With the [cancer moonshot], we made some significant changes in breaking down silos that existed. I realized there was a need to improve data standards so that patients could share their data. There was a need to reduce disparity in prevention to access to treatment.”
Five months after losing his son to glioblastoma, Joe Biden promised to lead America’s mission to “end cancer as we know it.” His pledge prompted the Obama administration to establish a national cancer moonshot initiative, which emphasized the need to make more therapies available to more patients, break down silos that blocked data sharing within the research community, and identify better ways to prevent cancer and detect it earlier.
“We’ve taken the hope of the cancer moonshot and turned this from an effort into a movement,” Biden said. “And we are going to devote our lives to it, and with the help and guidance of [oncologists], we can make a real difference.”
The Biden Cancer Initiative differs from the cancer moonshot in that it revolves around hope, Jill Biden said.
“I think this initiative is different because for us this is personal, as we lost our son to brain cancer,” she added. “That’s why we’re working so hard give people hope. We’re going to bring people together, we’re going to keep this movement going. It’s all about hope.”
The Biden Cancer Initiative — sponsored by the Biden Foundation — is intended to build upon moonshot, while injecting a sense of urgency into cancer research.
“Every minute, every day matters to patients, and we must bring that same sense of urgency to cancer research and care systems,” the Bidens said in a press release. “We are joining everyone who spends their days thinking about preventing cancer, about better understanding its biological basis, about bringing early detection and education to all communities, about developing new treatments and therapies, and about caring for patients and their families through some of the hardest days anyone faces. We are on your team. And we are proud to be working alongside you.”
The Bidens plan to call upon government, academia, nonprofits and the private sector to better organize resources and systems to collaborate in the fight against cancer.
The Bidens will co-chair the initiative. A board of directors will include experts in the fields of medical research, patient care, information technology, finance, management, patient engagement, patient experience and public policy.
The board of directors will include:
- David B. Agus, MD, professor of medicine and engineering at University of Southern California, and founding director and CEO of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC;
- Erin Andrews, lead sideline reporter at Fox Sports;
- David G. Bradley, chairman of the Atlantic Media Company, and founder of the Advisory Board Company and Corporate Advisory Board Company;
- Carol L. Brown, MD, director of the Office of Diversity Programs in Clinical Care, Research and Training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;
- Jimmy “ Taboo ” Gomez, cancer survivor and musician with Black Eyed Peas;
- Julie Papanek Grant, M BA, MPhil, partner of Canaan Partners;
- Elizabeth Jaffee, M D, deputy director of Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University;
- Howard Krein, MD, PhD, senior director of health policy and innovation at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, and associate professor in the department of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at Thomas Jefferson University;
- Eric S. Lander, PhD, director of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT;
- Todd Park, former U.S. chief technology officer;
- Gregory C. Simon, JD, president of the Biden Cancer Initiative;
- Kim Thiboldeaux, CEO of Cancer Support Community; and
- Jeffrey Zients, former assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council.
“I have had the privilege of caring for cancer patients for over two decades,” Agus said in the release. “For the first time in my career, I can walk into a patient's room with a sense of hope and optimism. The tide is changing in the war on cancer, but not quickly enough. I am so excited to work with Vice President and Dr. Biden to make a meaningful impact against this disease.”
Thiboldeaux said she is humbled to be part of the initiative and committed to helping “the patient voice” inform the organization’s goals.
“The Biden Cancer Initiative offers people diagnosed with cancer and their loved ones hope that our nation’s leaders truly recognize the urgency that ending cancer as we know it demands,” Thiboldeaux said.
The Biden Cancer Initiative — headquartered in Washington, D.C. — will operate independently of the federal government. It will operate under a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the Biden Foundation.
For more information, visit the Biden Cancer Initiative’s website. – by Kristie L. Kahl