Biden outlines an ambitious 'moonshot' effort to reduce cancer deaths in the U.S.
WASHINGTON — President Biden traveled to Boston on Monday to promote the cancer-fighting effort he first launched in February, with the goal of halving cancer death rates in the United States in the next 25 years.
“I give you my word as a Biden, this cancer moonshot is one of the reasons why I ran for president,” Biden said, describing it as part of his “unity agenda” of initiatives that even political opponents could support.
“Beating cancer is something we can do together,” the president said, noting that the disease does not discriminate between Republicans and Democrats.
He made his remarks at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, a setting of acute historical significance. It was 60 years ago on this day that Kennedy delivered a speech in Houston calling for the United States to put a person on the moon by the end of the decade. (Kennedy’s original call to reach the moon had actually come in 1961.)
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech on his "Cancer Moonshot" initiative at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., September 12, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Since then, government efforts have often been branded “moonshots” as a way to signal extraordinary ambition.
Although advances in detection and treatment throughout the last decade have been significant, cancer remains the nation’s second most common cause of death, after heart disease, killing about 600,000 Americans annually. And research indicates that, globally, people under the age of 50 are developing cancer more frequently than in earlier generations, for reasons that are not entirely clear.
The pandemic only complicated the fight against cancer. With the medical establishment largely oriented to fighting COVID-19 for much of 2020 and 2021, the rate of cancer diagnosis plummeted, potentially delaying lifesaving care.
“For too many cancer patients and their families,” Biden said, “instead of hope, there is bewilderment.”
U.S. President Joe Biden shakes hands with talk show host and interviewer David Letterman after delivering a speech on his "Cancer Moonshot" initiative at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., September 12, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueMore
Biden was vice president when, in 2016, President Obama asked him to launch a “cancer moonshot.” The year before, Biden’s son Beau succumbed to brain cancer at the age of 46.
The president has previously battled skin cancer, and four of the First Lady's friends were diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993.