“There are a lot of big and lofty goals in CancerMoonshot, and the words ‘ending cancer,’ well those are big words.' MedTwitter
In 2016, then-vice president Joe Biden launched Cancer Moonshot just 1 year after his son Beau died from. He wanted to"cure" cancer, he said. While that may be easier said than done, Moonshot has been instrumental in fostering research collaborations by encouraging data sharing among scientists.
Between 2017 and 2022, Cancer Moonshot created more than 70 consortia or programs, and funded about 240 research projects. Its fundamental goals of improving data sharing and encouraging collaboration are very important, said Tanios S. Bekaii-Saab, MD, leader of the gastrointestinal cancer program at Mayo Clinic, Phoenix.
Despite these efforts, cancer research fell behind during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said."This is true not just for Cancer Moonshot, but for everything including prevention and research. It really affected our capacity to continue to move forward at a fast pace." "The priorities are well founded and based on what we would think are the most important things to cover, but, if we're going to achieve these extraordinarily ambitious goals of halving cancer mortality and serving communities more equitably, it's going to need more funding positioned at making these things real," he said.
"I think when we do the process for the budget for FY24 and after we've had time to really explore the best ideas and build the foundation for some of these new aspects of the Cancer Moonshot, we hope to have something more concrete going toward these efforts," Carnival said.