For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the families that we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all,”the President said in his speech. Shortly thereafter, the White House announced that $1 billion would be provided to jumpstart the initiative. Since then, Vice President Biden has been working with a task force of department and agency heads, as well as other key stakeholders, in an effort to make cancer research more accessible for everyone. A big part of the work that has been done so far has been to increase collaboration among partners. This includes things like:
- Opening up research data to more parties
- Making clinical trials easier to find for cancer patients
- Soliciting cancer research ideas from the public
- Creating a network that engages cancer patients and allows them to contribute to finding a cure.
- Developing a structure dedicated specifically to clinical trials around immunotherapy.
- Searching for new techniques to overcome cancer’s resistance to therapy.
- Establishing a nationwide framework for cancer data to be sharing and contributions between researchers, practitioners, and patients.
- Increasing research on the causes and risk factors around childhood cancers.
- Reducing the impact of side effects experienced by cancer patients undergoing treatment.
- Broadening prevention and early detection methods to reduce cancer incidence.
- Collecting and using patient data to help better predict future outcomes.
- Generating an atlas of 3D maps that demonstrate the progression of different types of cancer tumors.
- Experimenting with new technologies that can magnify the search for more effective treatments.