President Joe Biden, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, spoke in New Orleans on Tuesday about a revised “Cancer Moonshot” plan that aims to cut U.S. cancer deaths by roughly half over the next 25 years.
The president’s address, delivered at Tulane University, focused on the need to break down research “silos” and improve information sharing within the cancer research community.
“It’s all about working together, sharing data and information,” Biden told an audience at Tulane University.
Biden’s remarks also focused on the rollout of the President’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Healthcare (ARPA-H), which the White House announced Tuesday would provide $150 million in new funding for, which Biden said will support the development of technologies to help surgeons more effectively remove cancerous tumors.
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President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden disembark from Marine One at Charleston Executive Airport, Wednesday, August 10, 2022, in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Senator)
“Today, surgeons are deciding how to displace cancer cells and protect vital organs without a clear view,” Biden said Tuesday. “Much of it is educated guesswork. The funding I’m announcing today will help get these tools into the operating room, allowing us to visualize tumors right away – eliminating days or weeks of waits and, in some cases, having to reopen patients for surgery. This is a promising step toward reducing the need for follow-up care.”
Biden said the $150 million will be distributed among eight universities across the country, including a team from Tulane University, which will receive $23 million. Other teams will be drawn from some of the nation’s leading universities, including Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, University of California, San Francisco, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Washington and Cision Vision in Mountain View, California.
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Biden reiterated his claim that the vote was fact-checked. (Getty Images)
The federal government’s Cancer Moonshot program was established in 2016 when Biden was vice president under former President Barack Obama. Biden’s Reform It will inject billions of dollars in new funding into the Cancer Moonshot program and strengthen it with a new goal of halving cancer deaths by 2047. A key goal also includes a nationwide ban on menthol cigarettes, though earlier this year the Biden administration reversed course on the ban after facing significant backlash.
The White House has listed the Cancer Moonshot as one of Biden’s top priorities for the remainder of his lame-duck presidency. Cancer is particularly personal to the Biden family, whose son Beau died of glioblastoma in 2015 at age 46. An aide said cancer research is “incredibly important” to the president, and that Biden plans to continue to commit billions of dollars to continue supporting the program between now and the end of his term, CNN reported.
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Cancer is the second leading cause of death for Americans after heart disease. The American Cancer Society predicts that there will be 2 million new cases of cancer and more than 610,000 cancer deaths in 2024.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden administration for comment after the speech. Fact Sheet The White House has outlined new ARPA-H funding.
