Biden relaunches cancer moonshot: ‘Let’s end cancer as we know it’

President Biden on Wednesday called the “cancer moonshot” initiative a priority of his White House during an event announcing the relaunch of the program.

“Let there be no doubt. Now that I am president, this is a presidential White House priority — period,” he said during remarks at the White House.

He called the relaunch a “supercharge” of the cancer moonshot and an essential effort of his administration. The program is personal for Biden and launched while he was vice president after his son Beau Biden died of glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer, in 2015 at the age of 46.

Beau Biden’s doctor during his 18-month battle with cancer was at the event, and the president pointed to him in the crowd at the start of his remarks. He spoke emotionally about how cancer patients often ask their doctors for two more weeks to see their daughter’s wedding or six more months to see their baby born.

“Let’s end cancer as we know it. I refuse to believe, I refuse to believe, this is beyond our capacity. I refuse to believe it,” he said.

The initiative is focused on efforts to diagnose cancer sooner by increasing access to ways to screen for cancer, with a focus on equity and addressing inequities across race and region. 

Biden argued on Wednesday that there is too little known about why treatments work for some patients but not for others with the same diagnosis. And he argued that patients usually want to share their data to help others. 

He issued an official call to action, asking those who missed their screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic to go and get a screening. There were more than 9.5 million missed cancer screenings in the U.S. as a result of the pandemic, according to the White House.

He called on companies to develop mobile units and pop-up clinics to make screenings more accessible and mentioned another goal of the program, which is to prevent cancer by looking at technology used to make COVID-19 vaccines.

Biden struck another personal tone, talking about his colonoscopy in November, during which he had a polyp removed from his colon that was benign.

“Last November, I got a colon cancer screening. I’m glad I did. Trust me. I know cancer’s scary. Going to the doctor can be scary. But screening is how you catch it before it’s too late,” he said. 

He called the cancer moonshot initiative a mission that can unify the nation.

“Let’s show the world what’s possible. Let’s show the world that we’re committed. Let’s show we can do big things,” he said.

Members at the event included Sens. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) as well as Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla), Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.).

Biden called it a bipartisan issue and made a plea for Congress to provide more funding for it. The cancer moonshot received $1.8 billion over seven years in funding through the 21st Century Cures Act, which Congress passed in 2016. About $400 million of that funding is left.

The president recalled that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who he said was his friend, had asked for unanimous consent to name the cancer provisions in the 21st Century Cures Act after Beau Biden.

“Cancer moonshot brought the country and the world closer together,” the president said.

Edjah Nduom, an associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Emory University School of Medicine, spoke at the event and called the president the country’s “patient advocate in chief” to introduce him. 

“I can confidently say that this is the most exciting moment in the history of our field,” he said.

First lady Jill Biden kicked off the event and recalled her personal experience with Beau Biden’s diagnosis. 

“A cancer diagnosis today can still leave us feeling hopeless, but we are not hopeless and are not helpless,” she said, saying that we are living in a “golden age” of research. 

“Yes, cancer has the power to rewrite our lives, but we have the power too, more than we even know. We can stop it in its tracks,” she added. 

And she introduced Vice President Harris, whose mother was a breast cancer researcher and died of colon cancer in 2009. Harris called cancer an issue of national importance and personal significance.

“My mother’s discoveries helped save women’s lives, and I am so proud that she brought our nation and the world closer to the goal of ending breast cancer as we know it,” she said.

She shared an emotional story of her mother’s experience with colon cancer, moving from hospital to hospice, and said she thought of her when the president first announced the initiative five years ago.

“Out of his personal pain, he launched an initiative, this initiative, that will help countless lives,” she said.