Biden's Mission: The Cancer Moonshot 2.0

AUSTIN, Texas - Dec. 13, 2022 - PRLog -- Biden's New "Cancer Moonshot 2.0" Hopes To Build On The Success Of Historic Campaigns Against Cancer

On World Cancer Day, February 4th, 2022, President Biden announced a new campaign, the Cancer Moonshot 2.0, whose ambitious goal is to reduce cancer mortality in half over the next 25 years.

Before we dig into the details of this new initiative, we should take a look at previous campaigns to reduce the incidence of cancer.

President Biden, who turned 80 this week, has long, long experience in government, having first been elected to the Senate in 1972 – when he was only 30 years old – during a time of increasing concerns about the effects of pollution on the environment and public health.

Concerns about toxic chemical pollution (and its possible connection to rising cancer rates) did not go unnoticed by then President Nixon, especially after the first ever annual Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Looking ahead to his re-election campaign in 1972, the Nixon administration responded with two landmark pieces of legislation:

The first was the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 1970. Within two years, the EPA had banned the infamous insecticide DDT, whose use was associated with rapid declines of insect and bird populations, including our national symbol, the Bald Eagle.
The second was Nixon's "The War on Cancer" – an initiative designed to address rising concerns over high rates of cancer mortality in the early 1970s. This culminated in the passing of the National Cancer Act of 1971, which dramatically increased the funding of institutions, such as the National Cancer Institute, by more than $1.5 billion (1970) dollars.

Since that time, the "War on Cancer" has been met with a mix of successes and frustrating failures. While overall cancer mortality rates have edged down (in part due to earlier screenings and improved treatments for some cancers), the war soon became a stalemate with no clear end in sight – rather than a quick, decisive battle to knock out cancer once and for all.

Subsequent Washington administrations have renewed the efforts to battle cancer through the introduction of new legislation packages, offering more funding and research support.

For example, in 2009, the Senate passed a bill known as the ALERT ACT (21st Century Cancer Access to Life-Saving Early detection, Research, and Treatment Act. While this bill did not pass the house, it signaled a shift toward promoting early cancer detection (through increased funding for screening) and greater access to clinical trials as a way to bring down cancer mortality rates.

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