Let the 'Cancer Moonshot' Inspire Hope!

When President Obama announced the cancer moonshot initiative at the Jan. 14 State of the Union speech, thousands of cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers cheered and cried at the same time. To many of us, the idea of executive action to integrate and accelerate the work underway seeking progress against cancer was awe-inspiring. NASA images remind us of the huge achievement that the Apollo and other space programs meant to the nation: Then the New York Times on Jan. 14 gave us a dose of sobriety in Gina Kolata's and Gardiner Harris' article entitled "'Moonshot' to Cure Cancer, to Be Led by Biden, Relies on Outmoded View of Disease." The idea of an intense government assault on cancer isn't new. In fact, the first "war on cancer" was started nearly 50 years ago and didn't achieve its goal, largely because at the time, we actually thought that cancer was one disease. As we've heard several presidents since Nixon talk about the need for a cure, we've also learned that cancer is actually hundreds of diseases -- hundreds -- and that each person's tumor for the same type of cancer may be genetically unique. Over the years, talk was cheap, and as our understanding grew about how hard and expensive it would be to achieve the goal of finding cure(s), it became more difficult to sustain our focus and priority on doing so. Despite the complexity of trying to conquer this vicious, constantly mutating disease, it is true that industry can't do this on their own, because of the...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news