Cancer "Moon Shot" initiative | VP Joe Biden
As many know, the United States Vice President, Joe Biden, lost his son (Beau Biden) from brain cancer in May 2015.
In Oct 2015, the VP announced he would spend the remaining year in the White House to push for a "moon shot" initiative to cure cancer.
Here's this weeks update on the latest news:
1. ASCO Meets with Vice President's Office to Help Inform "Moon Shot" Initiative
http://www.asco.org/advocacy/asco-meets-vice-presi...
2. Biden staff meeting with cancer experts in 'moon shot' push
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/265212-biden-...
3. Biden staff to cancer researchers: Tell us what we can do quickly
http://www.statnews.com/2016/01/08/biden-meeting-c...
The researchers suggested two possible quick-payoff initiatives:
- a data-sharing program that would allow researchers to compare notes on how tumors respond to different therapies, and
- a federal investment to make new progress in gene sequencing.
"Biden sees great promise in genomics, immunotherapy, and combined therapies".
Thoughts?
Comments
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I
still need to go through all of the links that you have provided but Iam appreciative of his efforts. (It is very sad that he lost his son to brain cancer.)Thank you for posting this.
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In the vein of big initiatives to cure cancer, here's more news.
Most know Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong (Dr. PSS). He's the Southern California based billionaire doctor who developed the breast cancer drug, Abraxane. He was featured in the 60 Minutes TV segment from Dec 2014 called "Disrupting Cancer", here.)
Back in Nov 2015, Dr. PSS met with VP Joe Biden, to discuss a national plan to fight cancer.
That meeting is highlighted in the article: "If Cancer Becomes Biden's Cause, a Bold but Polarizing Doctor Is On Call", found here.In brief, Dr. PSS proposed to Biden the following initiatives:
1. "performing full genomic sequencing of 100,000 cancer patients in the next 400 days to create a vast database for supercomputer analysis".
2. "creation of patient-specific cancer vaccines that harness a person's own "natural killer cells" to treat and prevent the recurrence of cancer." (essentially, a form of Immunotherapy.)Yesterday, Dr. PSS was in the news again when it was announced that he helped organize a new consortium called the "National Immunotherapy Coalition", a cooperative initiative that involves Amgen, Celgene and others to rapidly test various combinations Immunotherapy drugs. Here's two articles discussing this news:
1. New York Times article:
"Drug Companies to Try a Unified Front Against Cancer"2. Bloomberg article:
"A Billionaire's Cancer Moonshot" -
JS, Thank you for the additional information.
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More news.
Source: http://www.medicaldaily.com/obama-wants-cure-cance...In his final State of the Union address, President Obama promised to undertake a new national effort to cure cancer, a "moonshot" with Vice President Biden in charge of "mission control."
"For the loved ones we've all lost, for the family we can still save, let's make America the country that cures cancer once and for all," Obama said. His initiative will make use of a $2 billion increase in funding approved by Congress for the National Institutes of Health.
Mission Control
In a blog post following the president's address, Biden wrote that he will travel to the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine on Friday to continue the national dialogue with physicians and researchers. Next week he plans to meet with international experts at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and later this month he will convene the first of several meetings with cabinet secretaries and heads of agencies to discuss federal investment in cancer research.
"From my own personal experience, I've learned that research and therapies are on the cusp of incredible breakthroughs," wrote Biden, whose 46-year old son died of brain cancer last year.
Over the past few months, the vice president met with nearly 200 of the world's top cancer physicians, researchers, and philanthropists, he says. These efforts came to fruition earlier this week when a coalition of leaders within Pharma, Biotech, academia, the insurance industry, and the oncology community launched the "Cancer Moonshot 2020" program.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, billionaire chairman and chief executive officer of NantHealth, formed this "unprecedented collaboration" to accelerate the development of immunotherapy as the standard of care for cancer patients, a press release stated.
What is Immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy combines more than one highly specialized drug to fortify the body's immune system and enable its disease-fighting cells to attack tumors. Unlike current cancer treatments, immunotherapy is designed to harness and orchestrate all the elements of the immune system (including dendritic cells, T cells, and NK cells). As Soon-Shiong explained at last year's Forbes Health Summit, current therapies simply attack a targeted genetic mutation.
"The [incorrect] assumption we made is that cancer was a form of a single mutation, a single gene, or single clone," said Soon-Shiong.
In reality, he explained, there are thousands of mutated genes some awake, others asleep. When a patient is treated with a particular drug, the sleeping mutated genes awaken; and, though a single drug may eliminate a single mutation, others pop up as treatment (and the disease) progresses. Instead of dropping a single bomb, then, immunotherapy delivers a series of precision drone attacks: personalized medicine.
No longer will oncologists specialize in prostate cancer, say, or breast cancer, instead they will treat patients whose tumors share genetic characteristics, no matter where in the body they are located.
Cancer Moonshot 2020
As members of the new Cancer Moonshot 2020 coalition, corporations, and other institutions — including Celgene Corp., Amgen Inc., Independence Blue Cross, Allscripts, Blackberry, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Johns Hopkins University — will join forces to provide access to technologies and resources, including more than 60 novel and approved drugs.
Specifically, the coalition will design, initiate, and complete clinical trials at all stages of cancer in up to 20 tumor types in as many as 20,000 patients by year 2020. Known as QUILT (QUantitative Integrative Lifelong Trial), the program will test combinations of vaccines, cell-based immunotherapy, metronomic chemotherapy, low dose radiotherapy, and immunomodulators with the goal of achieving long-lasting remission in the patients. The 20,000 patients will have their tumors genetically sequenced as part of their contribution to QUILT; tumor types will include breast, lung, prostate, ovarian, brain, head and neck, multiple myeloma, sarcoma, and pancreatic cancer, among others.
"There are unique times in history when events and advancements in technology converge to elicit a quantum leap in medical care," said Soon-Shiong in a statement. Our cancer-free future beckons.
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I hope that Dr. PSS (as you refer to him) is correct!
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First we have to convince Medicare and insurance companies to cover genomic sequencing and immunotherapies immediately, rather than sit on their hands, call them “experimental” and refuse to cover them until there is “evidence” to prove their efficacy. Their current parsimoniousness (“parsimony?”) ensures the inadequacy of trials, or even prevents enough patients from enrolling to even get trials started. All sources of funding must be mined--from philanthropy, to gov’t, to mandating that drug companies divert a certain percentage from marketing to supplying trial drugs free or at vastly reduced rates.
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I agree Sandy.
Interestingly, Dr. PPS was on TV this morning talking with the investment community.
He mentioned the criticism he has received about using the term "Cure".
He went on record, with the ASCO President, saying a "Cure" is not realistic.
Instead, turning cancer into a chronic condition, that can be managed with Immunotherapies, was realistic.
What surprised me was that he said chemo would continue to be used (in conjunction with Proteomics, I think) to elicit a immune response.
He added something about stem cells and figuring out those mysteries as the holy grail.
In the end, he said the purpose of these initiatives (#moonshot2020) was to accelerate progress towards a cure.
I just hope that breast cancer thought leaders partner up with Dr. PSS and others. -
It's interesting that they are talking about harnessing our own Natural Killer cells. That's what a lot of naturopaths work on, too. In fact, the only time I got my NK cells measured was when I went to a naturopathic oncologist (luckily mine are excellent now.)
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That surprises me also that Dr. PSS is now talking chemo in conjunction, he was originally very much against chemo. He said something like blasting a person with chemo is not the way to go, hmmm.
We need a miracle for a good cure to be found and then I wonder what new thing will take cancer's place. I am very negative today, sorry.
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Another factor the NYTimes mentioned that hinders cancer research progress is that researchers (especially pharma-company-sponsored ones) tend to be proprietary and secretive about their own results, which leads to a lack of communication, as well as duplication of efforts and wastefully redundant expense. Politics--can't live with it, can't live with it....
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Sandy, Standup2Cancer was trying to correct some of that problem and I believe that Biden has stated it one of his initiatives to have these companies cooperate, it sounds great but this is America and taking freedoms away by force well, enough said. It would be wonderful if the companies agree to cooperate maybe the government can offer some tax break if they do so.
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Good points, Kay.
I read the following article and found this statement rather discouraging in terms of the misleading notions it presents: "And certain types of breast cancers can either be completely cured or treated so that people can live with the tumors for a long time." (Emphasis added.)
A) I'd like to know which breast cancers can be completely, definitively cured and
To me, there is a huge gulf between being "cured" and having a tumor that, however long you may live with it, is one day going to kill you. I found some of this very offensive.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/americas-quest-to-cure-cancer-biden_5696e281e4b0b4eb759d300d? -
Hopeful82014... I just read that too.
annaa at huffingtonpost dot com is the authors email. I wouldn't have any problem with her inbox getting filled up with questions about this statement.
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After reading that statement for a second time, I think she means that we know people who have been treated for breast cancer who go on to live to an old age and die of something else AND because she says tumors I think that she is talking about metastatic breast cancer. It is a very strange way of stating that though.
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Yes, my sense, too, ML, was that she was talking about mbc but that doesn't make me feel any better; the fact of the matter is still, as you know, that most with mbc DO eventually die of that cancer. Whatever she meant, she certainly perpetuated some erroneous impressions, in my book and I like John's suggestion of filling her inbox with questions about that statement. I plan to do my part.
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Hopeful, You are absolutely right!
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Thanks, ML
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You're welcome, Kay. I'm glad to be able to contribute a very tiny bit to the enormous knowledge shared here.
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more news...
"NIH's big cancer database coming soon"
Yesterday, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced that it is nearing completion of its genomic database for cancer research.
NCI acting Director Douglas Lowy said when it launches this summer, the Genomic Data Commons will be able to hold data from as many as 50,000 patients and clinical trial participants, including:
- Genomic analysis of cancers;
- Outcomes; and
- Treatments and their responses.The information would come from NCI clinical trials and other research.
The NCI portal will launch with two large data sets containing information from the:
- Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) program; and
- The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) -
I could be wrong, but this video makes it sound like the Cancer MoonShot is something Patrick Soon-Shiong (creator of Abraxane, among other accomplishments) has been in the process of putting together for some time, and that suddenly because there was a meeting in DC, Joe Biden is now involved, but had little to do with what Patrick has already accomplished in assembling this impressive group and commitment!
At any rate, here's a really exciting video well worth watching!!!
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I think the only way anyone can declare a particular cancer “cured” is if the patient lives out her statistically normal life expectancy and dies of something unrelated to the cancer.
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A huge part of this initiative is a clinical trial to enroll 20,000 patients over the next 3 year to test emerging genomic therapies. This is component because lack of patient enrollment is one of the key obstacles in moving the science forward.
From one of the online articles I just read.
"Most children and teens with cancer are enrolled in clinical trials that carefully guide their treatment, and that’s credited with markedly improving survival of pediatric cancer over the past 30 years.
In contrast, just 5 percent of adults with cancer enroll in clinical trials, a number that would have to increase to speed new approaches for cancer control."
This alone will seriously advance the science. Also, both genomics and immunotherapy are at a point that the time is right to significantly accelerate the enrollment process so we take the science "from bench to bedside". Some of the work I do is around educating brain cancer patients and their families to get into clinical trials as their frontline treatment.
We could not have done this initiative 5 years ago. The time is now perfect, and important to move forward QUICKLY, and harness the potential of this emerging field. One important point from the briefing is that both immunotherapy and genomic profiling are "second generation" now. Equally important is that we now have the informatics and computational power to extract the data we need from the clinical research.
I was fortunate enough to have an effective treatment available when I was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago. But hopefully, treatments for patients with my diagnosis will be far less toxic (although I came through just fine, and I participated in TWO clinical trials).
Another aspect of shortening the development time for these emerging therapies will be to reduce the cost to bring them to market. In the briefing, they were taking about a 3 year vs 20 year timetable. I believe all this is achievable, and everyone of us will benefit, either directly or indirectly.
So the net is that I am super psyched about Cancer MoonShot. I am also glad that Joe Biden is taking this opportunity to make a positive impact in the world. And of course, I now understand why he opted out of the presidential race. - Claire
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One of the big issues contributing to the lack of adult enrollees in cli iCal trial is the refusal of their insurers to cover any costs beyond those covere by the trial sponsor.
In my opinion, the loophole in the ACA which allows this is a huge issue and one I hope to see addressed as part of the 'Cancer Moon Shot.' -
I am in Canada and was also treated in the U.S. (at the beginning of this journey I was living there) in neither place was I "allowed" to take part in trials - I was literally "told" that they (the MO's) would let me know if and when it was possible - seriously ticked me off! So, let's not blame the patients and start finding out why the medical professionals aren't doing their jobs.
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As many know, patient genomic data is trapped in silos and not shared. This impedes progress and hurts all cancer patients, particularly ones with less common subtypes (IBC, ILC, etc)
At last years SABCS conference, a collection of patients protested this sharing issue. Rightfully so.
The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project (www.MBCproject.org) was launched allowing metastatic patients to share their tumor samples with the research community to uncover new discoveries.
Last February, the MBCproject was recently added to the Precision Medicine Initiative by the White House.Today, another small victory in the quest to "share data" was announced.
California based, Ambry Genetics, will release genomic info from 10,000 patients with breast and ovarian cancer in a free, public database open to researchers.
This is the first large-scale initiative by a commercial diagnostics company to share such info, a move that is in line with the Precision Medicine Initiative (#CancerMoonShot).
Here's the news link: Genetic Testing Company Opens Up Trove Of Cancer Patient Data To Public -
Vice President Biden will present the Cancer Moonshot report to the President today.
Here's a few links posted today that are worth reading:
Cancer Moonshot Report:
https://medium.com/cancer-moonshot/my-report-to-the-president-3c64b0dae863#.kduotkynv
Biden's final 'cancer moonshot' report outlines progress and hurdles:
www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/bidens-final-cancer-moonshot-report-outlines-progress-and-hurdles/2016/10/16/a9c1b454-9167-11e6-9c85-ac42097b8cc0_story.html
'Immense hope': Vice President Joe Biden comes to Fred Hutch to talk about cures for cancer:
http://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2016/03/Vice-President-Joe-Biden-visits-Fred-Hutch.html -
Thanks, John. I appreciate the links.
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