Legislation brings high hopes for cancer research.By Stephen Ornes
When Beau Biden died from brain cancer in May 2015, his father, then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, turned grief into action. He spent his last year in office helping to develop the Cancer Moonshot, a U.S. government initiative designed to accelerate the pace of cancer drug development.
In December 2016, the Cancer Moonshot became law as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. The law authorizes $6.3 billion to be spent over 10 years on research into treatments and patient care for a variety of diseases. Through the Moonshot, 28.6 percent of the total amount, or $1.8 billion, will go to research focused on cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, including cancer vaccines and immunotherapies.
Nearly 1.7 million people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer and more than 600,000 will die of the disease in 2017, according to American Cancer Society estimates. Kim Thiboldeaux, CEO of the Cancer Support Community, based in Washington, D.C., is one of the advocates who have commended the new law for drawing attention to cancer patients. Thiboldeaux calls the Cures Act a “win for patients, future and current.”
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