The Biden Cancer Moonshot is mobilizing efforts toward achieving two clear goals that President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden set: prevent more than 4 million cancer deaths by 2047 and improve the experience of people who are touched by cancer. To achieve these ambitious but achievable goals, the Biden Cancer Moonshot is driving progress across the cancer journey utilizing all facets of the oncology community – federal agencies, and departments, private companies, healthcare providers, patient groups, and philanthropies - to end cancer as we know it here in the United States and all around the world.
Two years ago, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden reignited the Biden Cancer Moonshot, mobilizing the cancer community around a singular mission: to end cancer as we know it. Cancer is personal for so many, including the President and First Lady. That is why President Biden made the Cancer Moonshot part of his Unity Agenda, issues that can unite us to deliver for the American people. Through the Biden Cancer Moonshot, they are building a world where the word “cancer” loses its power and a diagnosis is not a death sentence. To accomplish this mission, the President and First Lady set two ambitious, but achievable goals: to decrease the age-adjusted cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years, saving 4 million lives by 2047, and to improve the experience of patients living with and surviving cancer, along with their caregivers and loved ones. As the President has said: “It's bold. It's ambitious. But it's completely doable.”
These new goals are possible, because we have made significant progress since Congress passed the National Cancer Act over 50 years ago. In fact, the cancer death rate in the United States has fallen by 33% over the past three decades. However, although much progress has been made, the reality is that cancer still remains the second leading cause of death in America, claiming over 600,000 lives each year, and claiming almost 10 million lives around the world (1). With the reignited Biden Cancer Moonshot, President Biden lays out a vision of both optimism and urgency and builds upon the achievements of what he started as Vice President in 2016. The bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, for example, supercharged progress by investing $1.8 billion for cancer research over seven years, spanning cancer disparities, drug discovery and development, and innovation around rare and childhood cancers, to name a few. Importantly, this investment resulted in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) supporting over 240 research projects across more than 70 cancer science initiatives, including improving and expanding cancer immunotherapies and finding ways to overcome treatment resistance. Building upon this progress, the Biden Cancer Moonshot is now focused not only on continuing to drive progress in the realization of new ways to prevent, detect, and treat cancer but also on ensuring the tools we have and those we develop along the way reach every community in this country—rural, urban, territories, and Tribal nations—leaving no one behind (2).
To organize the effort, President Biden created the first-ever Cancer Cabinet, bringing together the heads of over 20 U.S. departments and agencies to drive progress across the whole federal government. The Cancer Cabinet has since announced more than 50 new federal programs, policies, and resources across five priority action areas—to close the screening gap, understand and address toxic and environmental exposures, prevent cancers, drive innovation to reach patients and communities, and support patients and caregivers.
Early in 2022, the President and First Lady issued a call to action to “close the screening gap”—rallying the community to jumpstart progress on the 10 million screenings that people missed as a result of the pandemic (3). Since then, the Biden–Harris Administration has taken bold actions to close equity gaps and facilitate access to life-saving cancer screenings, including connecting Federally Qualified Health Centers to NCI-Designated Health Centers with a total of $15 million to facilitate access to life-saving cancer screenings and early detection services for underserved communities. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued more than $200 million in grants, as part of a commitment of more than $1 billion to advance cancer screening programs in every state, many U.S. territories, and Tribal nations.
To drive progress to understand and address toxic and environmental exposures, the Environmental Protection Agency dedicated $1 billion to accelerate cleanup efforts at up to 80 Superfund sites and committed $7.4 billion to help states replace lead pipes and service lines. This includes efforts to protect millions of families from “forever chemicals” and other contaminants that increase people's risk of getting certain cancers. In addition, the Biden–Harris Administration recently announced $5.8 billion in funding for clean water infrastructure to ensure a future where every child and family has access to clean, safe water. Furthermore, the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act is the most significant expansion of benefits and services for veterans in more than 30 years. So far, more than 4.1 million veterans have received free screenings for toxic exposures from the Department of Veterans Affairs under the PACT Act—a critical step to catching and treating potentially life-threatening health conditions as early as possible.
To prevent more cancers before they start, the NCI Cervical Cancer “Last Mile” Initiative launched the Self-collection for HPV testing to Improve Cervical Cancer Prevention (SHIP) Trial, to test the effectiveness of cervical cancer screening. In addition, the Biden–Harris Administration is taking on the biggest single driver of cancer deaths in the country: smoking. In support of this goal, NCI and the Indian Health Service partnered to create SmokeFreeNative, a text messaging program to help American Indian and Alaska Native adolescents and adults quit smoking, while honoring the significance of traditional tobacco. The Department of Health and Human Services developed a new plan to prevent smoking and to support those who want to quit. These actions could prevent up to 30% of cancer deaths in this country, saving up to 13,000 lives each year (4).
To drive new innovation and deliver progress to patients and communities, President Biden established the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a new agency that supports transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs. ARPA-H has awarded more than $500 million to researchers and innovators to drive new ways to prevent, detect, and treat cancer and other diseases. These include projects to develop new tools to detect cancers early, when cancers are most treatable; produce innovative approaches to visualize cancer cells during surgery to improve patient outcomes through the Precision Surgical Interventions program; pursue new treatment approaches, like directing bacteria to kill cancer inside the body; and design devices to deliver treatments directly to cancer cells to treat tumors more effectively.
In support of a cancer research workforce that is more representative of the U.S. population, the Biden Cancer Moonshot announced a new early career program at the NCI: the Cancer Moonshot Scholars, which invests in the next generation of innovative cancer researchers. With projects that span prevention, early detection, and treatment, the first cohort of Cancer Moonshot Scholars is accelerating progress against cancer nationally and around the globe. The Biden–Harris Administration will grow the program in the coming years, with an intent to fund 30 additional Cancer Moonshot Scholars by 2025.
Improving equity and outcomes for people living with cancer requires the Cancer Moonshot to deliver progress on all of the above priority areas. However, when it comes to improving the experience of living with cancer, their loved ones and caretakers, patient navigation is a cornerstone of this work. Cancer navigation is personalized assistance for patients, caregivers, and families to help identify and resolve barriers to effective, supportive, and timely cancer care through care coordination and advocacy. With leadership from First Lady Jill Biden, the Biden–Harris Administration has taken concrete steps to ensure that these critical services are now a reimbursable service—paving a pathway for more support for patients with cancer and their families. This past November, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized reimbursement codes for patient Principal Illness navigation (PIN) services (HCPCS codes G0023 and G0024), which remove barriers to care, including care coordination, health education, patient self-advocacy skills, and health system navigation, and facilitate access to community-based social services to address unmet social determinants of health, such as food and housing insecurity and transportation needs. Also, last fall, the American Medical Association issued updated guidance on the appropriate use of CPT codes (99424–99427), which can be used by insurers in reporting clinical navigation services. Clinical navigation focuses on clinical care, coordination, and education and is provided by clinical staff, including nurses and licensed clinical social workers.
Ending cancer as we know it is not only personal for the President and First Lady, but to individuals across the country and around the world who have been touched by this disease. Although the federal government works to accomplish this mission, individuals, health care providers, and leaders across sectors have also mobilized by committing more than 100 new actions that are making progress toward these priorities. These commitments have affected people across the United States, from Appalachia to Georgia, from South Florida to Flint, Michigan, all with the goal to improve outcomes and support people facing cancer and their loved ones.
ACHIEVING GLOBAL IMPACT FOR THE CANCER MOONSHOT
Although the immediate goals of the Biden Cancer Moonshot are domestic in focus, the ambitions extend far beyond the borders of the United States, especially as the burden of cancer falls heavily to low- and middle-income countries, where the vast majority of global cancer deaths occur (5). No one nation can solve this problem, but together, we can build a better world. That is why the global work of the Biden Cancer Moonshot focuses on access and collaboration to increase prevention, early detection, screening, treatment, and care for everyone facing a cancer diagnosis. It is also why we are seeking to galvanize the community under a Global Cancer Moonshot.
This past year, we have seen a number of countries join the Biden–Harris Administration to focus efforts, identify gaps, and make progress. This includes the formation of expert working groups between the European Union and United States around lung and pediatric cancers, as well as the recent announcement from President Biden and Prime Minister Modi of a U.S.–India Cancer Dialogue. Cancer experts across the federal government have been deeply engaged with G7 countries, and with partners in Ireland and Northern Ireland. In addition, President Biden has engaged with Japan and the Republic of Korea, committing to sharing resources and expertise to tackle some of the most complex cancer-related problems together. The Biden–Harris Administration released a report developed through a UK–U.S. scientific Cancer Summit in 2021, providing opportunities for the countries to work together to improve health outcomes. In addition, the Australian Embassy recently announced their efforts to launch a U.S.–Australia Cancer Alliance to strengthen research and collaboration between the two countries.
The United States has made funding commitments to improve cancer care globally. This includes investing $7.5 million in the International Atomic Energy Agency's flagship program Rays of Hope, designed to help countries fight cancer with radiation safety, infrastructure, and equipment, bringing our total contributions to this initiative to more than $47 million. The First Lady and Second Gentleman hosted a spousal event as part of the African Leaders Summit in December 2022, where they announced commitments of more than $300 million to improve cancer outcomes in Africa. The Biden Cancer Moonshot also cemented more than 40 private sector commitments to reduce the burden of cancer in India and across the continent of Africa.
By strengthening international collaboration around key oncology elements like clinical trials, data sharing, and basic and translational research, we will accelerate new and innovative treatments for all patients with cancer. Working across national boundaries also means sharing best clinical and care practices, developing new ideas and innovations, and reaching more people. Building strong partnerships around the world is key to making progress toward ending cancer as we know it.
Speaking on the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's famous moonshot speech, in which President Kennedy vowed to send a man to the moon by the end of the decade, President Biden laid out his vision to achieve Cancer Moonshot goals. In it he said: “When President Kennedy called for a moonshot, we didn't have all the tools and experience needed. With our Cancer Moonshot, today we do.” Through a focus on equity, on bringing the tools we have to everyone faced with a cancer diagnosis, and on delivering effective new treatments, we are committed to the goal of cutting the cancer death rate in half by 2047, improving the experience of those living and surviving cancer, and achieving a Global Cancer Moonshot—ending cancer as we know it for all.
RSS Feeds