President Joe Biden, alongside first lady Jill Biden, delivered remarks Tuesday in New Orleans addressing his revamped “Cancer Moonshot” program, which seeks to cut the cancer death rate in the U.S. by about half over the next 25 years.
During the president’s remarks, which took place at Tulane University, he focused on the need to break down research “silos” and improve information sharing among the cancer research community.
“It’s all about working together and sharing data, sharing information,” Biden told the crowd at Tulane.
Biden’s remarks also focused on the president’s development of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) initiative, which the White House announced on Tuesday would be getting $150 million in new funding. The funding, he said, will go towards supporting the development of technologies to help surgeons more successfully remove cancerous tumors.
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“Right now, surgeons determine how to move cancerous cells and protect vital organs without a clear view of them,” Biden said Tuesday. “A lot of it is educated guess work. The funding we announce today will help get these tools into the operating room to visualize tumors right away instead of having to wait for days and weeks and maybe re-open the patient to go back in. It’s a promising step to reduce the need for follow-up treatments.”
Biden said the $150 million will be allocated to eight different colleges and universities across the country, including a team at Tulane, which will receive $23 million. The other teams will come from some of the nation’s leading universities and colleges, including Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, the University of California – San Francisco, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Washington and Cision Vision in Mountain View, California.
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The federal government’s “Cancer Moonshot” program was established in 2016, under former President Barack Obama, when Biden was vice president. In 2022, Biden revamped the Cancer Moonshot program by bolstering it with billions in new funding and a new goal of reducing the cancer death rate in half by 2047. Major goals include a nationwide ban on menthol cigarettes. But earlier this year, the Biden administration reversed course on the ban following an immense push back.
The White House has listed the Cancer Moonshot program as one of Biden’s top priorities for the remainder of his lame duck presidency. Cancer is a particularly personal subject for the Biden family, as their son Beau died of glioblastoma in 2015 at the age of 46. According to one presidential aide, cancer research holds “immense importance” for the president, CNN reported, and between now and the end of his term, Biden said he plans to continue doling out billions in funds to continue to support the program.
Cancer is the second-highest cause of death among Americans after heart disease. The American Cancer Society has estimated that 2024 will see 2 million new cancer cases and more than 610,000 fatalities from the disease.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden administration following the speaking engagement for comment and was directed to a fact sheet released by the White House outlining the new ARPA-H funding.
