Vice President Joe Biden
Julie M. Vose, MD
Vice President Joe Biden offered remarks on the White House’s National Cancer Moonshot Initiative on Monday, June 6, to attendees at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Essential Elements
“The Moonshot Initiative can be a vehicle for major new progress against cancer, and ASCO’s Annual Meeting will address practically all of its essential elements,” said ASCO President Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, in a press release issued before the meeting. Dr. Vose, who is now the ASCO Immediate Past President, added, “We are excited to welcome Vice President Biden to the meeting, which focuses on the theme of collective wisdom. Like the Moonshot itself, the meeting reflects a bold commitment to bring the cancer community together and share knowledge to improve the care of patients.”
During his 2016 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama announced that Vice President Biden would lead a national “Moonshot” Initiative to eliminate cancer. ASCO wholeheartedly supports the Moonshot Initiative’s 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.
ASCO’s Efforts to Advance Progress Against Cancer
In meeting with Vice President Biden, ASCO has repeatedly stressed how important “big data” initiatives will be to the future of cancer care. Based on input from its members, ASCO is also preparing to submit a set of concrete ideas for the Moonshot Initiative’s consideration to further advance progress against cancer.
Watch for coverage of Vice President Biden’s address at ASCO in an upcoming issue of The ASCO Post. ■
