President Joe Biden took to the Boston-based John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Sept. 12 to provide an update on his Cancer Moonshot program.
Although President Biden laid out the majority of the initiative March 17, he announced a number of updates, one of which is the establishment of a new Cancer Cabinet that is "driving a whole-of-government effort to unleash every possible asset" to ending cancer.
President Biden also signed an executive order launching a National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative to help ensure that cancer-ending technology is made in the U.S. In another move, Renee Wegrzyn, PhD, is set to be appointed inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health — a new federal agency focused on ramping up research to drive breakthroughs in immunotherapy and cancer care and prevention.
While outlining his priorities, President Biden also acknowledged some of the shortcomings for the nation's cancer care and research system, like lacking strategies to develop new treatments and sharing sufficient data.
"But for each — for each of the ways we know cancer today, we know we can change the trajectory," he said.