'Moonshoot' Cure for Cancer Announced During State of the Union Speech

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President Barack Obama announces a "moonshot' initiative for curing cancer during the State of the Union speech.

Obama signed a presidential memorandum that established a White House Task Force on cancer. The President placed Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the chairman of the initiative. Mr. Biden's son, Beau, died last year after a battle with brain cancer.

"Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer. Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they've had in over a decade," Obama said during his State of the Union speech, as reported by CNN.

"(Because) he's gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I'm putting Joe in charge of Mission Control," he added. "For the loved ones we've all lost, for the family we can still save, let's make America the country that cures cancer once and for all."

Mr. Biden will lead the panel which includes representatives from government agencies including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Energy, Commerce, Defense, Food and Drug and Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

According to a blog post in Medium written by the Vice President, the goal is "to make a decade worth of advances in five years - and, eventually, end cancer as we know it."

A way to speed up the rate of progress towards finding the cure, treatment and prevention of cancer is by breaking down barriers.

"Right now, we're on the cusp of incredible breakthroughs in both research and therapies. In just the last decade or less, we've seen amazing advances in immunotherapy, in genomics, in virology and combination therapies."

Another key area is to allow researchers, oncologists, scientists and physicians access to information database regarding anything cancer-related.

"If we ensure this data is interoperable and accessible for scientists, researchers, and physicians, the consensus is that we can absolutely speed up research advances, improve patient care, and get ourselves closer to a cure."

The third issue he addressed is to find ways to increase the range of clinical trials and how to do it cost-effectively.

CBS News reports that Biden announced last year that he will be spending the last months of his term to find ways to cure cancer. He traveled to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum held in Davos to meet and speak with the cancer researchers from top institutions around the world.