Vice President Joe Biden announced plans in September 2016 to make it easier for cancer patients to get information about clinical trials that could help them and speed up the work of researchers seeking new cures.
“Every day thousands of Americans hear that dreaded word, that C-word," Biden said in a Sept. 16 speech sponsored by MD Anderson and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. "What happens next is a difference between life and death. If there's treatment there, then you know there's hope, but for some people, hope is a clinical trial."
Biden's speech at Rice University took place just a few days after the 54th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's historic speech about going to the moon at Rice on Sept. 12, 1962.
"President Kennedy's words are still ringing in my ear: 'We are unwilling to postpone for a minute, a day, a week, a month,' " Biden said. "Every great doctor in here can tell you — I guarantee you — he's been asked by a patient, 'Doc, can you give me just one more week so I can walk her down the aisle?' 'Doc, my first grandbaby's coming. I need three months, doc. Just give me three months.'
"This is about today," Biden said. "This is not about tomorrow."
Biden knows firsthand just how urgent the mission is for the millions of people touched by cancer. He recalled losing his son Beau last year after a devastating cancer diagnosis and thanked the MD Anderson doctors and nurses who offered hope and helped his son fight for his life.
MD Anderson is “probably the greatest cancer research hospital in the world,” he said.
MD Anderson President Ronald DePinho, M.D., said the national Cancer Moonshot event at Rice was a proud moment for Houston and MD Anderson, which launched its own Moon Shots Program in 2012, inspiring the national movement.
Biden’s speech means that “he stands with us in the fight against cancer,” DePinho said. “It will put the might of the federal government behind these efforts.”
MD Anderson’s cancer clinical trial program is the largest in the nation. More than 9,400 participants were enrolled in clinical trials exploring innovative treatments in Fiscal Year 2015. These trials are also an important part of MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program.
President Barack Obama announced the White House Cancer Moonshot to accelerate cancer research during his 2016 State of the Union address. The vice president is leading the initiative, which aims to make more therapies available to more patients, while also improving the ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage.
Two MD Anderson faculty members serve on the Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel advising the national effort. And MD Anderson hosted a local summit on the national moonshot in June 2016.
For more information on MD Anderson's Cancer Moon Shots program, visit cancermoonshots.org
