“When President Kennedy promised to send humans to the moon and return them to Earth, the United States had the building blocks to know it was possible. As a nation, we were fully committed to a moon-travelable future and we have done just that,” the official said.
“Today we have many of the building blocks needed to make significant advances in cancer treatment, but we must come together to deliver on that promise. With incredible progress, we can already start to see what we need, it is possible,” the official added.
Biden has often referred to Kennedy’s September 12, 1962 speech at Rice University when discussing his battle with cancer.
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon and do other things in this decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. It’s a challenge we’re willing to accept, it’s something we don’t want to put off, and it’s something we’re going to win,” Kennedy said.
U.S. Ambassador to Australia and daughter of the late president, Caroline Kennedy, welcomed Biden’s speech at the JFK Library, saying: As we know it, we are on a bold path to ending cancer. ”
The battle with cancer is very personal for Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015.
In his 2016 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama tasked then-Vice President Biden with leading the White House Cancer Moonshot initiative. In his absence, Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, founded the Biden Cancer Initiative, a nonprofit that supports cancer research and prevention.
The president relaunched the White House Cancer Moonshot initiative in February, setting goals to reduce cancer mortality by at least 50% by 2047 and improve the experience for cancer patients and their families. Biden also made ending cancer one of his pillars on the unity agenda outlined in his State of the Union address this year.
“We can do this. I promise, we can do this. For all the people we’ve lost. For all the people we’ve missed.” We can end cancer as we know it.”
The President appointed a Cancer Cabinet made up of representatives from 20 ministries, agencies, and the White House. This includes VA Secretary Dennis McDonagh and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. Alondra Nelson.
This summer, the group will focus on “(1) closing the screening gap, (2) understanding and addressing environmental exposures, (3) reducing the impact of preventable cancers, and (4) cutting-edge research through the pipeline. Supporting patients and communities, and (5) patients and caregivers, according to the White House study.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. But earlier this year, the American Cancer Society noted that progress had been made as cancer death rates fell.
According to the Annual Report on Cancer, overall cancer mortality has fallen by about one-third (32%) from its peak between 1991 and 2019, from about 215 per 100,000 to about 146 per 100,000. about 3.5 million deaths were averted during that time. Statistics from the American Cancer Society. Most of that decrease can be attributed to lower mortality in lung cancer patients.
CNN’s Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnn.com
