NEW YORK – The Biden Cancer Moonshot program on Wednesday announced a series of new public and private initiatives and projects — including several related to earlier and better diagnosis and precision treatment — designed to support its stated goal of halving the cancer death rate over the next 25 years.
Originally launched by then-Vice President Joe Biden during Barack Obama's presidency, President Biden "reignited" the effort in 2022 with the formation of a "Cancer Cabinet" and wide-ranging public-private initiatives aimed at reducing deaths, improving the lives of patients and survivors, and promoting more equitable access to screening, prevention, and treatment.
In a statement on Wednesday, the White House highlighted accomplishments thus far such as creating the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to drive oncology investment and innovation, bringing cancer screening to more communities, and delivering the first-ever reimbursable cancer navigation services.
As Biden's presidency comes to a close, the Cancer Moonshot program also disclosed several new initiatives. For instance, the White House said that the National Cancer Institute will double its investment in research in early-onset cancers, providing new funding for studies on the underlying biology of these diseases and projects that will improve prevention, treatment, and post-diagnosis care.
In addition, the US Department of Veterans Affairs plans to expand access to cancer genetic testing and at-home colorectal cancer screening, with a goal of increasing cancer genetic testing use by 25 percent by the end of fiscal year 2025. Over that same period, the VA's National Colorectal Cancer Screening Program will facilitate mail-in fecal immunohistochemical testing in at least 80 percent of eligible VA facilities.
Meanwhile, cancer data company Massive Bio is launching an artificial intelligence-powered clinical trial matching platform and prescreening hubs to improve access, enrollment, and navigation. Fueled by an initial $15 million investment by the New York-based company, this program will use real-world data and comprehensive genomic profiling to match patients with optimal trial opportunities. It is expected to impact over 50,000 patients living with cancer annually, with a goal of reaching 250,000 patients per year globally by 2027, the White House said. In a statement, Massive Bio said it will take a patient-centric "hub and spoke" approach with prescreening hubs featuring advanced data analytics, ensuring rapid trial activation in both traditional and decentralized settings.
In another private effort, Redwood City, California-based biotech company Earli will expand its diagnostics platform to therapeutics beginning in 2025, using its technology to turn cancer cells into factories that consistently produce any desired marker or protein for better outcomes in cancer diagnosis and treatment. This approach, the White House said, will "help stop unclear cancer diagnoses and treatment failures for millions of patients and fundamentally change how we approach cancer treatment by genetically forcing cancer cells to activate the immune system to attack cancer."
Also in 2025, Elsevier's oncology decision support, ClinicalPath, plans to launch new capabilities prompting oncologists to incorporate precision medicine into their treatment decision-making while helping to reduce administrative burden. Supplemental to the latest evidence and guidance, these enhancements will enable clinicians to have direct access to their patients' biomarker results at the point of care, the White House said.
Finally, Phoenix-based VisionGate will launch clinical collaborations to deploy its at-home collection test for early-stage lung cancer in an effort to dramatically reduce mortality from lung cancer and improve access disparities through at-home screening. The company will work with cancer centers including Northwestern Medicine, HCA Healthcare (Sarah Cannon), and Kaiser Permanente to complete clinical trials and advance at-home lung cancer screening through its proprietary Cell-CT 3D cell-analysis platform, which detects often symptomless stage I lung cancer with 94 percent sensitivity and low false-positive rates.