{"id":68059,"date":"2016-04-06T13:40:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T17:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/?p=68059"},"modified":"2019-05-24T18:22:52","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T22:22:52","slug":"blue-ribbon-panel-cancer-moonshot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipwatchdog.com\/2016\/04\/06\/blue-ribbon-panel-cancer-moonshot\/id=68059\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Ribbon Panel of Advisors Announced for Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>Earlier this week the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, announced a Blue Ribbon Panel of scientific experts, cancer leaders, and patient advocates that will work to inform the scientific direction and goals for Vice President Joe Biden\u2019s National Cancer Moonshot Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n The so-called \u201ccancer moonshot initiative\u201d originated during President Obama\u2019s 2016 State of the Union address to Congress<\/a>. During his speech the President announced a new national effort to eliminate the life-threatening conditions of abnormally growing cells we commonly know as cancer. In charge of this new cancer moonshot, as the President put it, is Vice President Joe Biden. Vice President Biden already recently worked to secure about $264 million in funding for the National Cancer Institute<\/a> in a Congressional spending bill passed in December 2015. This mission to defeat cancer will no doubt be a labor of love and deep commitment for the Vice President given that his son Beau Biden lost his battle with brain cancer in May 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n A final report by the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force <\/a>, chaired by Vice President Biden, will be produced and delivered to President Barack Obama by December 31, 2016. Obviously, that will leave no time for President Obama to take action on the recommendations, but hopefully whoever prevails in the November elections pick up these recommendations moving forward.<\/p>\n In a past article on this topic<\/a> there was a healthy amount of skepticism among readers, and there has also been a healthy amount of skepticism by critics beyond the pages of IPWatchdog.com. The main criticism seems to be that there is a belief that a cancer moonshot initiative is a fool\u2019s errand because it will be necessary to have dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of individual cancer moonshots.<\/p>\n The primary argument against the cancer moonshot initiative seems to go something like this: Cancer is a catchall term that describes many different diseases. Nothing we will learn fighting one form of cancer will be transferable to fighting or treating another form of cancer. There just isn\u2019t enough money to go around to try and eradicate cancer. Therefore, the cancer moonshot is a waste of time and money.<\/p>\n Simply put, these critics of the cancer moonshot initiative are wrong. Although they make these statements with such authority, are apparently not familiar the current state of cancer research and the exciting new discoveries that researchers are making that suggest paradigm shifting breakthroughs could be within sight.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks to advances in science, we are now in a historically unique position to make profound improvements in the way we treat, detect, and prevent cancer,\u201d said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. He is correct, and here is why.<\/p>\n Dr. David Agus<\/a> is an oncologist who is a Professor of Medicine and Engineering at the University of Southern California, and the author of The Lucky Years: How to Thrive in the Brave New World of Health<\/a>. He recently explained to Fareed Zakaria in an interview on CNN<\/a> that cancer therapies and treatments have dramatically changed in recent years. For example, when describing the miraculous recover of former President Jimmy Carter, Agus explained that all cancers essentially block the immune system from attacking by releasing what he referred to in general terms as a \u201cdon\u2019t eat me signal.\u201d The treatment that President Carter was given, in lay terms, suppressed this \u201cdon\u2019t eat me signal,\u201d which allowed his own T-cells to destroy the cancer. According to Agus, this works time and time again for multiple types of cancer, including kidney cancer, melanoma, and even some types of lung cancer.<\/p>\n Agus also cites big data for being able to make associations that physicians could never have made independently on their own. For example, women with ovarian cancer who also happen to be taking a beta blocker for high blood pressure live about a year-and-a-half longer than do women not on a beta blocker. Studies are underway to confirm what the big data analysis shows and to help understand why.<\/p>\n According to Agus, \u201cwe\u2019re at that inflection point. Literally, things are changing.\u201d<\/p>\n In any event, the panel of experts assembled by the NCI will serve as a working group of the presidentially appointed National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) and will provide scientific guidance from thought-leaders in the cancer community.<\/p>\n \u201cThis Blue Ribbon Panel will ensure that, as NIH allocates new resources through the Moonshot, decisions will be grounded in the best science,\u201d said the Vice President. \u201cI look forward to working with this panel and many others involved with the Moonshot to make unprecedented improvements in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the next several months, the panel will consider how to advance the themes that have been proposed for the initiative. The themes include the development of cancer vaccines, highly sensitive approaches to early detection, advances in immunotherapy and combination therapies, single-cell genomic profiling of cancer cells and cells in the tumor microenvironment, enhanced data sharing, and new approaches to the treatment of pediatric cancers.<\/p>\n The members of the Blue Ribbon Panel are:<\/p>\n Tyler Jacks, Ph.D.<\/a> (Co-Chair) Tyler Jacks, Ph.D.<\/a>\u00a0(Co-Chair) Dinah Singer, Ph.D. <\/a>(Co-Chair) Peter Adamson, M.D.<\/a> James Allison, Ph.D.<\/a> David Arons, J.D.<\/a> Mary Beckerle, Ph.D.<\/a> Mitch Berger, M.D.<\/a> Jeff Bluestone, Ph.D.<\/a> Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D.<\/a> James Downing, M.D.<\/a> Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D.<\/a> Gad Getz, Ph.D.<\/a> Laurie Glimcher, M.D.<\/a> Lifang Hou, M.D., Ph.D.<\/a> Neal Kassell, M.D.<\/a> Maria Elena Martinez, Ph.D.<\/a> Deborah Mayer, Ph.D., R.N.<\/a> Edith Mitchell, M.D., F.A.C.P<\/a> Augusto Ochoa, M.D.<\/a> Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D.<\/a> Angel Pizarro, M.S.E.<\/a> Barbara Rimer, Dr.P.H.<\/a> Charles Sawyers, M.D.<\/a> Ellen Sigal, Ph.D.<\/a> Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.B.B.Ch.<\/a>
\nChair, National Cancer Advisory Board, and Director, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge<\/p>\n
\nProfessor and Deputy Director for Translational Research, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore<\/p>\n
\nActing Deputy Director and Division of Cancer Biology Director, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland<\/p>\n
\nProfessor and Director, Experimental Therapeutics in Oncology, The Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia<\/p>\n
\nProfessor and Chair of Immunology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston<\/p>\n
\nChief Executive Officer, National Brain Tumor Society, Newton, Massachusetts<\/p>\n
\nCEO and Director, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City<\/p>\n
\nProfessor and Chair, Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco<\/p>\n
\nA.W. And Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor, University of California, San Francisco<\/p>\n
\nPresident, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development, and Executive Vice President, Pfizer, Inc., New York City<\/p>\n
\nPresident and CEO, St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee<\/p>\n
\nAssociate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston<\/p>\n
\nDirector, Cancer Genome Computational Analysis and Institute Member, Broad Institute, Director, Bioinformatics Program, MGH Cancer Center and Department of Pathology, Associate Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Paul C. Zamecnik Chair in Oncology, MGH Cancer Center<\/p>\n
\nProfessor of Medicine and Dean, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Incoming President and CEO, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston<\/p>\n
\nAssociate Professor of Preventive Medicine, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago<\/p>\n
\nProfessor of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville<\/p>\n
\nProfessor of Family Medicine and Public Health, Reducing Cancer Disparities Program, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center<\/p>\n
\nProfessor of Adult and Geriatric Health, University of North Carolina School of Nursing, and Director of Cancer Survivorship, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill<\/p>\n
\nProfessor of Medical Oncology and Associate Director for Diversity Services, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia<\/p>\n
\nProfessor of Pediatrics and Director, Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, Louisiana State University, New Orleans<\/p>\n
\nProfessor of Oncology, Professor of Biochemistry, and Director, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville<\/p>\n
\nTechnical Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services Scientific Computing and Research Computing, Philadelphia<\/p>\n
\nAlumni Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill<\/p>\n
\nChair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York City<\/p>\n
\nFounder and Chair, Friends of Cancer Research, Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
\nFounder, Chair, and CEO, NantWorks LLC, Los Angeles<\/p>\n