Week of Action: White House Details Progress from the Cancer Cabinet

 In July of 2022, The White House announced its new “Cancer Cabinet” line-up, which is part of President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. By December, the Moonshot initiative expanded to involve multiple federal agencies, including the National Cancer Institute, the US Food and Drug Administration, the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, alongside the Departments of Labor and Commerce, NASA and the White House Gender Policy Council.

By focusing on areas of cancer research that are most likely to benefit the American people, the Cancer Moonshot has brought together a large community of patients, advocates, researchers and clinicians who are dedicated to advancing research to end cancer as we know it. The key aim is to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years, and improve the experience of people and families living with and surviving cancer, ultimately ending cancer as we know it today. 

A White House statement lists the Cancer Cabinet’s priority actions, underscoring vital areas which include improving access to cancer screenings. Sadly, the statement also cites that Americans missed almost ten million cancer screenings compared to previous years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among other steps the Cancer Cabinet is taking to support Americans facing a cancer diagnosis, this includes:

• new resources from the Department of Labor to help people facing a cancer diagnosis and their caregivers understand their rights as employees;
• expansion of a US Patent and Trademark Office program to expedite consideration of patents for innovations to detect and treat cancer; and
• the launch of a new trial to reveal best-practice approaches in liver cancer from the Department of Veterans Affairs, along with the kick off of a PACT Act Week of Action, sharing information with veterans about the benefits of the most significant expansion of VA Benefits and Health Care in 30 years. 

The PACT Act  expands access to VA health care services for veterans exposed during their military service, and codifies VA’s new process for evaluating exposure and service connection for various chronic conditions when the evidence of a military environmental exposure are strong in the aggregate but hard to prove on an individual basis.

Koning shares the goal of ending cancer as we know it. In the same way that we put our trust into our KBCT -device, we are thrilled to witness the impact The White House’s evolving initiatives will have. These actions are only a few examples from the Cancer Cabinet to support Americans facing a cancer diagnosis.