During Vice President Joe Biden’s formal launch of his “moonshot” to cure cancer on January 15, ASCO encouraged a comprehensive approach to accelerate the discovery of new cancer treatments, including issues related to enrollment in clinical trials, access to care, federal funding, and information technology and interoperability.
Represented by ASCO member and community oncologist Stephen Grubbs, MD, the Society applauded Mr. Biden’s leadership during a special panel discussion held at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and offered ASCO’s full support to making the Vice President’s vision a reality.
“With the current explosion of new cancer science, diagnostic tests, and treatments,” said Dr. Grubbs, who serves as Vice President of ASCO’s Clinical Affairs Department, “there is no better time for this bold commitment to reduce the human suffering and loss of life that cancer inflicts on millions of Americans each year.”
In meetings and interactions with Mr. Biden’s office leading up today’s launch, ASCO stressed the need to widely implement “big data” initiatives, such as ASCO’s CancerLinQ™ rapid-learning system, for the immediate benefit of current patients and long-term benefit of patients around the world for generations to come.
“With the effective application of ‘big data’ initiatives, insights that have taken years to discern could happen much more quickly, helping us better understand which treatments work best for each patient and the high-impact areas where additional research is critically needed,” said Dr. Grubbs. “ASCO stands ready to fully support the Vice President as we envision a world where every person who faces a diagnosis of cancer is filled with hope, rather than fear.”
On January 19, Vice President Biden discussed ASCO’s CancerLinQ initiative as one of the “major undertakings” designed to advance the pace of progress in the fight against cancer as part of the “moonshot” initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. During the session, Mr. Biden spoke of CancerLinQ’s efforts to “harness big data and personalize care for millions of cancer patients.”
To watch the full video, which mentions CancerLinQ at the 9:40 mark, visit http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2016/sessions/cancer-moonshot-a-call-to-action/. ■
© 2016. American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved.
