President Joe Biden launched the Cancer Moonshot in 2016, when he was serving as vice president in the Obama administration. President Biden reignited the initiative in 2022, setting a goal to reduce the cancer death rate by 50% in the next 25 years.
To support those efforts, the administration has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to cancer research institutes across the country.
Here are four Cancer Moonshot updates:
- The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health awarded $150 million to seven research teams across the country toward the development of surgical technologies, imaging systems and tools for removing tumors.
- Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.): A laparoscopic imaging tool for prostate cancer surgery that includes 3D mapping and visualization.
- Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore): Noninvasive imaging tools to give surgeons a more colorful view of surgery, as well as fluorescent dyes and endoscopes.
- Rice University (Houston): A microscope for imaging tumor slices and AI algorithms to classify cells.
- Tulane University (New Orleans): A high-resolution and 3D system to see tumors more clearly and an AI algorithm to identify and classify cancer cells.
- University of California San Francisco: A microscope to help surgeons find and remove cancer cells, as well as a multi-cancer dying agent activated by enzyme activity in tumors.
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: An imaging test to identify suspicious tissue structures after surgery.
- University of Washington (Seattle): A microscope system that helps surgeons see the whole tumor surface and AI to grayscale tumor images, which prevents the need to physically dye samples.
- Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.): A laparoscopic imaging tool for prostate cancer surgery that includes 3D mapping and visualization.
- HHS awarded almost $9 million to 18 health centers across the country as part of the Health Resources and Services Administration's Health Center Program to help provide cancer care to rural or underserved communities.
- Four new members were appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board, including oncologists Callisia Clarke, MD, and Edjah Nduom, MD.
- Epic, Oracle, Meditech and CVS committed to the Cancer Moonshot Enhancing Oncology Model. The cancer care model aims to reduce expenses, provide patient-centered treatment and enhance patient outcomes.