In his last state of the union address, President Obama reinvigorated the nation’s interest in a long-sidelined disease/s: cancer. A call for a moonshot was announced, and the president in his address said, “I’m putting Joe in charge of mission control.” The last time such a national commitment towards this illness was announced was by the efforts of a cancer advocate, Mary Lasker. She advocated fiercely, and the National Cancer Act was signed by President Nixon. Passage of the Act increased federal efforts to fight cancer. It created the National Cancer Program, which is led by the National Cancer Institute. It ensured a steady stream of funding for cancer researchers. The sad part is that it all happened in 1971 — a whopping 35 years ago; I wasn’t even born then! Since then, the cancer funding has been slipping down slowly. Adjusting for inflation, NIH funding is down 20 percent just over the last decade.
The president’s announcement and the vice-president’s commitment should have been welcome news for the country, especially the cancer community. But this initiative met with a considerable amount of criticism. The New York Times criticized the ambition with the headline: “Moonshot to Cure Cancer, to Be Led by Biden, Relies on Outmoded View of Disease.” Oncologists took social media by storm, calling the initiative unrealistic. The major source of outcry is referring to cancer as one disease entity.
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