#CancerMoonshot: For us, this is personal
“For me, this is personal. But I know we can do this.” — United States Vice President Joe Biden
Creative Commons’ work is founded on the belief that sharing and openness are fundamental to progress and that the power of knowledge can change and even save lives. To that end, we are proud to be participating in Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Summit, happening today in Washington, D.C. Our CEO, Ryan Merkley, is there to join with many of the key people and organizations working to put an end to cancer. In celebration of the summit, Creative Commons is today announcing a set of commitments to help open up cancer research.
Raise your voice together with Creative Commons in support of open access to cancer research. Tweet, blog, and post your stories with the hashtags #CancerMoonshot and #OpenCancer to call for increased open access to research. Paywalls, embargo periods, proprietary journals, and lack of open education should no longer be the norm. We are making concrete commitments to beat cancer within our lifetime, but we cannot do it without your help.
Two months ago, we asked for your personal stories about the importance of open research and collaboration among cancer researchers to share with the Vice President, and the response was outstanding. We’re happy to share some of your stories below, and we encourage you to continue the conversation.
“Open research saves lives, time, and money”
Your stories of open access
A close relative was just diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. My family and I are searching for, and reading, everything we can find about the available treatment options. Some of the papers we would like to read are not available to us, or are behind paywalls with big price tags.
In addition, if full and complete open access to all the research (and data) related to cancer was available people could (and would) build systems to help researchers more efficiently and effectively use this material to inform and advance their work.
What this means is that the quality and length of the life of my loved one might be improved and extended.
Think this out to the logical conclusion… we will ‘cure’ cancer and all knowledge of cancer will eventually be freely available to all. A key question is how short can we make the time between now and then and how much pain and suffering can we reduce?
— Mark Graham
My father was just diagnosed with stage four cancer. He is a candidate for an experimental trial, but all of the most recent scientific research on the experimental drug that he is eligible for is locked up behind embargoes. I work in a research library, so I can acquire them through inter-library loan, but that’s not something that’s available to everyone. I’m one of the lucky ones.
— Kathleen DeLaurenti
I am a cancer survivor from stage 4 Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I have been in remission now for fourteen years... At the time there was very little research available on the web. I would have read everything I could to find a cure for my cancer…
Open research means that people like me, and the many foundations who help people with cancer, will have free access to all of the cancer research. The more eyes that we have on this subject, the sooner we will have cures for cancer. People who have cancer have the greatest motivation to solve this puzzle. If they can study the problem first hand, they may be able to use this information to stay in remission like me. They may be more willing to donate to that cancer research center too. They may be more willing to participate in studies when they see that a cure is possible and know why they have cancer in the first place… If cancer patients and their advocates could see more of this research, they could get the right help in time to cure their cancer. Open research will save lives, time and money.
–Carolyn
