Biden Relaunches “ Cancer Moonshot ”
By Insooo Park
Among the initiatives discussed in President Biden ’ s State of the Union address on March 1st , 2022 , was a renewed version of 2016 ’ s “ Cancer Moonshot ,” the 21st-century Cures Act launched during the Obama administration . This was a 7-year program encompassing the funding of some 240 projects with $ 1.8 billion in allocated funding , not all of which has been fully spent . Additionally , the creation of an Advanced Projects Research Agency for Health was discussed . Though the Congressional Budget Office has not yet established a budget for H . R . 6000 ( Cures Act 2.0 ) and H . R . 5585 ( ARPA-H
), a multi- is billion dollar scope for the program expected to be received .
The program will go beyond biomedical research to include social issues to address disparities in care and access to care in underserved communities . Included amongst the program ’ s headline goals are :
1 . 50 % reduction of mortality over the next
25 years , 2 . Increased prevention , 3 . Increased screening , hopefully for multiple cancers simultaneously ( along with getting back on track with the estimated 9 . 5 million screenings not performed in the midst of COVID-19 ), and ; 4 . Learning to better targett the right treatments to the right patients .
TODAY ’ S RESEARCH
INITIATIVES
Frighteningly , there are approximately 200 distinct types of cancer , often with many different genetic sequences evolving over time within the same tumor . However , we have never had as many avenues to explore additional means of cancer screening
, nor have we had better tools to do so .
As an example of present research initiatives
, researchers are now learning
how to use small numbers of living cells divided from biopsies to populate laboratory well plates in order to prescreen which anticancer drugs are most likely to be effective . Personalized precision medicine is coming . Other researchers are using well plates to grow large numbers of tiny “ organoids ” from stem cells in order to rapidly screen how new drug candidates might affect otherwise healthy tissues of various types .