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Oncology leaders: Biden Cancer Initiative will continue moonshot’s momentum
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The Biden Cancer Initiative — launched in June by former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, PhD — will continue to promote the collaboration of and investment in the research community sparked by the national cancer moonshot initiative, according to representatives of leading oncology societies.
The venture is intended to further progress in cancer prevention, detection, treatment and care, while reducing disparities in patient outcomes.
“We are truly pleased to see that former Vice President Joe Biden is continuing his support for progress against cancer through the newly formed Biden Cancer Initiative,” Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO, CEO of ASCO, told HemOnc Today. “The federal government’s cancer moonshot provided new resources, collaboration and renewed interest in cancer research when it was announced last year, and we believe this new initiative will help continue the momentum among all stakeholders.
“We look forward to continuing to provide recommendations and guidance to the team at the Biden Cancer Initiative to help accelerate the progress in bringing new treatments to the millions of Americans who face a cancer diagnosis each year,” Hudis added.
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, improve data sharing within the research community, and identify better ways to prevent cancer and detect it earlier.
“With the [cancer moonshot], we made some significant changes in breaking down silos that existed,” Biden said in remarks streamed on the Biden Cancer Initiative’s Facebook page. “I realized there was a need to improve data standards. ... There was a need to reduce disparity in prevention to access to treatment.”
No one in the current presidential administration is involved with day-to-day operations of the moonshot.
The Biden Cancer Initiative — sponsored by the Biden Foundation — is intended to build upon moonshot, while injecting a sense of urgency into cancer research.
“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 Bidens’ pledge to continue the moonshot effort stands to have an impact on the pace at which scientific discoveries are made, Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), said in a statement.
“We are extremely excited that former Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden are formally announcing the launch of the Biden Cancer Initiative,” Caligiuri said. “The former vice president will now be able to take his extraordinary passion and ability to inspire people to another level as he continues the momentum he began in January 2016 to make a major positive difference for cancer patients and their loved ones worldwide. The AACR looks forward to working with Mr. and Dr. Biden and their team on numerous initiatives that will result in an acceleration of advances in cancer research for the benefit of improvements in patient care.”
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 — headquartered in Washington, D.C. — will operate independently of the federal government. It will operate under a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the Biden Foundation.
The Bidens — who will co-chair the initiative — plan to call upon government, academia, nonprofits and the private sector to better organize resources and systems to collaborate in the fight against cancer.
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, MBA, MPhil, partner of Canaan Partners;
- Elizabeth Jaffee, MD, 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 2 decades,” Agus said in a press 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 in the release. – by Kristie L. Kahl and Alexandra Todak
For more information:
Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO, can be reached at asco.org.
For additional reading:
Biden Cancer Initiative. Available at: bidencancer.org. Accessed on June 28, 2017.
Disclosure: Hudis reports he has consultant/advisory roles with Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche/Genentech, and other financial relationships with Breast Cancer Research Foundation.