The Opportunity: Ending Cancer as We Know It
“For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.” — President Barack Obama
Recognizing this unique moment in the fight against cancer, in his 2016 State of the Union Address, President Obama called on Vice President Biden to lead a new, national “Cancer Moonshot” to dramatically accelerate efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer — to achieve a decade’s worth of progress in 5 years. The progress we have made in understanding cancer in all its forms over the last several decades and the declining death rate from cancer since the early 1990s have shown that a future may be possible wherein:
- all segments of society have access to prevention strategies, diagnostics, and treatments that save lives;
- there are cures for some forms of cancer and others have been turned into chronic conditions that do not diminish the quality or length of life;
- cancer researchers and doctors are collaboratively engaged in a system that accelerates knowledge and breakthroughs; and
- patients and health care professionals are partners, and patients can easily access and control their health information to use as they wish, including to further biomedical research.
While bold, the goal of the Cancer Moonshot is within our grasp. Today, society has the benefit of decades of scientific understanding and vast amounts of rich data just waiting to be transformed into solutions.
We now know that cancer is hundreds of diseases, largely of our genome, and we have developed new and innovative ways of capitalizing on this knowledge. We know that our behavior and environment contribute to our likelihood of getting cancer, and we are modifying our behaviors and exposures to avoid known risks. We know that prevention and early diagnosis are key to fighting cancer, and we can build these efforts into clinical care.
Added to these advances, today, are immense science and technological capabilities that have positioned us to make a quantum leap in the fight against cancer. For instance, dramatic advances in immunotherapy — engineering our immune system to selectively target cancer cells — has shown remarkable success in treating a host of cancers. Over just the last two decades, the cost of whole genome sequencing has fallen from in the range of millions of dollars per genome to below $1,000. The increased connectedness of people through smartphones, mobile technologies, electronic health records (EHRs), and the internet allows us to reach people across communities and enables the sharing of essential information key to improving outcomes for patients with cancer. Our ability to store, mine, and analyze the vast array of data from so many sources grows every day, and the rise of data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are rapidly becoming ubiquitous in consumer products. And these are just the technologies of today.
Perhaps most importantly, the Cancer Moonshot reflects a shared national commitment to harness the vast intellectual creativity and innovation of the American people to work together to take on the scourge of cancer. The promise of translating research gains into improved treatment options, such as the emergence of precision medicine, coupled with the signing of the Affordable Care Act to expand insurance coverage, the encouraged use of EHRs for patient care, and transitioning to new models of coverage and payment that promote better care at lower cost have provided an important foundation. The Cancer Moonshot aims to realize this promise by leveraging public and private efforts focused on building a system in which patients, researchers, and clinicians can seamlessly share information on treatments and outcomes to accelerate research, guide treatment decisions, and improve cancer outcomes for people across the Nation, and ultimately the world.
The time is now. Together, we can end cancer as we know it.
Read previous chapter:
Report of the Cancer Moonshot Task Force: Executive Summary
Read next chapter:
The Launch: Establishment of a Cancer Moonshot Task Force
Download the full Cancer Moonshot Task Force report.
