Accelerating Progress against Cancer with Science and Collaboration

Setting Cancer Research Priorities for the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative

What does it take to achieve 10 years of progress in cancer research in only 5 years?

I’ve been asked that question many times since President Obama announced the launch of the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative earlier this year and put Vice President Biden in charge of mission control.

An important part of the answer is a recommitment at all levels to making it happen. As the Vice President has made perfectly clear, he is committed to doing everything in his power to achieve this goal.

And as leader of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), I share with the Vice President a whole-hearted dedication to making real progress against cancer in as short a time as possible, and leading this effort with the best science available.

Over the past few months, as I have met with cancer leaders from around the country and the world, I have sensed a growing optimism that the timing couldn’t be better for this effort. Like the U.S. mission to put an American on the moon more than 50 years ago, the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative is the intense dedication of funding, talent, and resources to the fight against cancer for this generation. However, we must recognize that accelerating progress does not mean that cancer will be gone in five years and that we still need a great deal of research to increase our knowledge of cancer and deepen our understanding of the mechanisms by which new treatments work, how to combine them, and how to overcome drug resistance.

Cancer research — which entails a wide spectrum, from the most basic studies to the most applied, such as clinical trials — can be a deliberate, labor- and resource-intensive process. It is almost always a marathon and, except for rare instances, never a sprint.

The Time is Right

Thanks to years of dedication by researchers and patient volunteers that have enabled advances, we are on the cusp of being able to make even greater strides against cancer today. Key achievements are within our reach, if we can identify the areas that are most ripe for progress, and put a marketplace of ideas, energies, and talents behind them.

Widespread optimism is rooted in recent advances in technology and in our understanding of how cancer develops and spreads. Long-term support of basic and applied studies of the immune system has generated a burgeoning field of immunotherapy and the possibility that immunological approaches may be extended from prevention against cancer caused by oncogenic viruses to prevention of cancers not attributable to infectious agents.

In addition, we can treat some cancers based on the genetic mutations that occur in a patient’s tumor, rather than focusing exclusively on the type of cancer a patient has. This approach has enabled the NCI-MATCH trial, which is testing more than 20 targeted drugs from different pharmaceutical companies in a single clinical trial, and has accrued patients faster than any other NCI-supported clinical trial since it was launched last year.

This shared optimism is also rooted in an enhanced spirit of collaboration in the cancer research community, and a belief that dramatic advances that greatly improve our ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer are within reach.

Even in the face of this convergence of dedication, focus, and will, we need to make the best decisions to make the most of the opportunity before us. The Cancer Moonshot calls for us to be at once aspirational, yet practical and focused.

While the Moonshot Initiative was launched as the catalyst for major progress, the Moonshot’s Blue Ribbon Panel was established to help guide the science behind this ambitious effort.

Setting a Vision, Establishing a Plan for Progress

Working with the Vice President and NIH leadership, NCI established a Blue Ribbon Panel of experts last month to recommend the areas of study to be funded under the Cancer Moonshot.

The panel’s 28 members include leading experts from an array of scientific disciplines and leaders from the patient advocacy community and industry. The panel’s chief responsibility is to identify prioritized opportunities in cancer research that, with additional funding and focus, are poised to produce significant advances. And, importantly, the panel will identify ways to overcome the barriers to pursuing these opportunities.

The panel has established seven working groups, each involving more than a dozen subject matter experts and patient advocates from around the country to develop a set of well-informed programs to be pursued under the Moonshot Initiative. Starting this week and through mid-summer, the working groups are discussing opportunities in: cancer clinical trials, data sharing, pediatric cancer, immunology and prevention, precision prevention and early detection, implementation sciences, and tumor evolution and progression. The “basic science and research” of cancer will be taken up by several of these working groups.

Give the Moonshot Your Best Ideas

While the Blue Ribbon Panel working groups bring together top experts, we know that true progress often has unexpected origins and that cancer affects everyone. Part of accelerating progress against cancer at the speed envisioned under the Moonshot Initiative requires casting a wide net for ideas on how to achieve this goal.

So last month, NCI launched Cancer Research Ideas, a website through which anybody can submit his/her best ideas for preventing, detecting, and treating cancer, as well as basic research and cancer survivorship. Already we’ve received feedback from diverse individuals groups, including healthcare providers, scientists, students, and family members of people undergoing cancer treatment.

NCI is collecting these ideas submitted online and providing them to the Blue Ribbon Panel and its working groups on a weekly basis. The working groups are considering the ideas in their deliberations as they come up with the most compelling recommendations for advancing cancer research in the topic areas.

The Cancer Research Ideas website is open for submitting ideas through July 1, 2016, and the sooner ideas are received the sooner they will be shared with the appropriate working groups.

What’s Next for the Cancer Moonshot?

The Cancer Moonshot Initiative is on a fast track to identifying scientific priorities and moving them into implementation. The Blue Ribbon Panel will discuss and assemble the recommendations of the working groups this summer and deliver a report to NCI and ultimately to the Vice President.

As we work to make this ambitious initiative a reality, I’d like to thank the entire cancer community and the public for their enthusiastic support and continued dedication. The palpable optimism and desire for progress is inspiring, and NCI is proud to help lead this effort.

Of course, even if we achieve the goals of the Moonshot, cancer will still be with us. But if we’re successful, we will have set the course for long-term progress that could save and improve the lives of many Americans and people around the world.

Douglas R. Lowy, M.D. is the Acting Director at the National Cancer Institute