Biden says world on cusp of some 'real breakthroughs' on cancer

By Andrea Shalal

 

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a bipartisan meeting on cancer legislation in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 3, 2021. Alex Brandon/Pool via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday to brainstorm ways to accelerate the fight against cancer, saying he believed the world was nearing some "real breakthroughs."

 

Biden, whose son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46, said the battle against cancer was deeply personal for him - and many Americans.

 

He told reporters before the meeting that cancer or "the C word" remained the most frightening word in the English language.

 

"We can make significant strides fighting cancer and Alzheimer's and other diseases," he said. "I think we're on the cusp of some real breakthroughs across the board on cancer."

 

The White House said Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had a productive, nearly hour-long discussion with the lawmakers, but gave no details on specific priorities or legislative plans.

 

Participating in the meeting were three Democratic senators - Patty Murray, Dick Durbin and Chris van Hollen, two Republican senators - Roy Blunt and Mike Crapo, and four lawmakers from the House of Representatives.

 

Many of the lawmakers helped passed the 21st Century Cures Act during the Obama administration, which authorized billions of dollars in funding for the National Institutes of Health for research on cancer and other diseases.

 

During the Obama administration, Biden oversaw Cancer Moonshot, an initiative aimed at speeding development of cancer treatments. Over $1 billion has been invested in the initiative to date, supporting over 240 research projects and 70 cancer science initiatives, according to the National Cancer Institute.

 

Biden also founded the Biden Cancer Initiative in 2017 as a way to bring together researchers and share data, but it suspended operations after Biden announced his White House bid in 2019.

 

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Franklin Paul and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-04

 

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10 minutes ago, webfact said:

"We can make significant strides fighting cancer and Alzheimer's and other diseases," he said. "I think we're on the cusp of some real breakthroughs across the board on cancer."

Lets hope he doesn't come up with some ideas like irradiating your insides with UV light or injecting Dettol. Why can't presidents just stick to running the country.

2 minutes ago, jvs said:

No he won't,despite what trumpeteers think this president uses his brains the right way!

I think health related issues are certainly a concern for the president,a real one that is.

Like World peace? That's one subject US presidents should steer well clear of considering their history on that cause.

I hope he is right (this time)....I am 65 and recall a "cure for cancer" at least 2/3 times year since I was old enough to follow the news.

20 minutes ago, webfact said:

"the C word" remained the most frightening word in the English language.

Still taboo for us, the vacation in Australia was a real eye opener.

 

24 minutes ago, webfact said:

Biden also founded the Biden Cancer Initiative in 2017 as a way to bring together researchers and share data, but it suspended operations after Biden announced his White House bid in 2019.

This will be relevant after all the posts I read here discussing Trump charities being criminal rip-offs for the rubes that drank the Koolaid etc etc. Let's see how great the Biden charity was

 

"The Biden Cancer Initiative was founded in 2017 by the former vice president and his wife, Jill Biden, to “develop and drive implementation of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research and care and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes,” according to its IRS mission statement. But it gave out no grants in its first two years, and spent millions on the salaries of former Washington, DC, aides it hired."

https://nypost.com/2020/11/14/biden-cancer-initiative-spent-millions-on-payroll-zero-on-research-report/

 

Snopes confirms the truth of the facts and desperately tries to spin it, but fails as it provides no details on what the funds raised were supposed to be used for

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-cancer-charity/

14 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

Still taboo for us, the vacation in Australia was a real eye opener.

 

This will be relevant after all the posts I read here discussing Trump charities being criminal rip-offs for the rubes that drank the Koolaid etc etc. Let's see how great the Biden charity was

 

"The Biden Cancer Initiative was founded in 2017 by the former vice president and his wife, Jill Biden, to “develop and drive implementation of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research and care and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes,” according to its IRS mission statement. But it gave out no grants in its first two years, and spent millions on the salaries of former Washington, DC, aides it hired."

https://nypost.com/2020/11/14/biden-cancer-initiative-spent-millions-on-payroll-zero-on-research-report/

 

Snopes confirms the truth of the facts and desperately tries to spin it, but fails as it provides no details on what the funds raised were supposed to be used for

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-cancer-charity/

Embarking on a fishing expedition I presumed.

. 
https://cancerletter.com/articles/20201116_1/

3 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Embarking on a fishing expedition I presumed.

. 
https://cancerletter.com/articles/20201116_1/

from your link

 

“It’s not so much about raising money or philanthropy—though there will be some of that—but it’s more about keeping these guys cooperating and changing the culture,”

 

Curing cancer by "changing the culture" OK thank you Eric, but you seem easily pleased. Your verbose article goes on and on, and in circles, and some rants, trying to obfuscate the basic facts that they raised millions and spend it all on insider staff. If they had any concrete achievements with the money raised feel free to point it out.

31 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

I hope he is right (this time)....I am 65 and recall a "cure for cancer" at least 2/3 times year since I was old enough to follow the news.

You took my words.

Can't count how many breakthroughs in cancer research/treatment there were over the decades.

Wish them the best of luck.

 

Sure we all hope for medical breakthroughs.  As forJoe Biden, I just hope he can stand up to an open press conference.  40+ days and he can’t speak without a teleprompter.  That’s a record, BTW.

8 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

Sure we all hope for medical breakthroughs.  As forJoe Biden, I just hope he can stand up to an open press conference.  40+ days and he can’t speak without a teleprompter.  That’s a record, BTW.

That's a improvement over Trump's first press conference in 167 days which was full of vile, combative attack on the press, dodging questions and of course his regular lies.

https://www.npr.org/2017/01/11/509137239/watch-live-trump-holds-first-press-conference-as-president-elect

18 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Embarking on a fishing expedition I presumed.

. 
https://cancerletter.com/articles/20201116_1/

The Biden Cancer Initiative funded no research. That’s because, again, it was never intended to. 

 

More lies from the trump rubes in a previous post. When will they ever learn.........

18 hours ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

Still taboo for us, the vacation in Australia was a real eye opener.

 

This will be relevant after all the posts I read here discussing Trump charities being criminal rip-offs for the rubes that drank the Koolaid etc etc. Let's see how great the Biden charity was

 

"The Biden Cancer Initiative was founded in 2017 by the former vice president and his wife, Jill Biden, to “develop and drive implementation of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research and care and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes,” according to its IRS mission statement. But it gave out no grants in its first two years, and spent millions on the salaries of former Washington, DC, aides it hired."

https://nypost.com/2020/11/14/biden-cancer-initiative-spent-millions-on-payroll-zero-on-research-report/

 

Snopes confirms the truth of the facts and desperately tries to spin it, but fails as it provides no details on what the funds raised were supposed to be used for

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-cancer-charity/

I'll give you credit for properly providing an unbiased source to go along with the biased one, that's a pretty reasonable approach from my point of view.

 

However, despite that, you still managed to take what was written and mislead with your post. The NY Post tried to give the impression that there was something funny going on since money was spent on salaries but not grants. However, as noted in the Snopes report, there was no intention to provide grants, so it's not a relevant criticism. You then try to paint the non-partisan Snopes as "desperately trying to spin it" but "provides no details on what the funds raised were supposed to be used for". Well, let's see what a one-second Google result tells us?

"The Biden Cancer Initiative sought to put an end to the siloing of cancer research. It worked to support the work of the entirely different and much larger Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot, a National Cancer Institute program that President-elect Joe Biden spearheaded as vice president that continues to fund grants worth many millions of dollars each year." This is from Cancer Health, a periodical. Oh, and "the Cancer Letter suggests the similar names of the two programs may have led reporter Isabel Vincent to conflate the nonprofit Biden Cancer Initiative with the ongoing, federal Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot effort." 

So yeah, if this is the best you got, gonna be a long 12 years under Biden-Harris for you. 

23 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

Sure we all hope for medical breakthroughs.  As forJoe Biden, I just hope he can stand up to an open press conference.  40+ days and he can’t speak without a teleprompter.  That’s a record, BTW.

If trump had learned to read he could have used a teleprompter rather than the childish trumpspeak which suited his rube base!

32 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

That's a improvement over Trump's first press conference in 167 days which was full of vile, combative attack on the press, dodging questions and of course his regular lies.

https://www.npr.org/2017/01/11/509137239/watch-live-trump-holds-first-press-conference-as-president-elect

President Trump is no longer in office. 

6 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

President Trump is no longer in office. 

My reply was to enlighten a confused poster that 44 days are not a record. Many more days to catch up with Trump's 167 days. Try not to be too eager to defend your 'golden' idol; pun intended.

Forgive me for having my doubts, but the medical industry, big pharma, the FDA and the industrial/hospital complex in the US is not exactly the paragon of integrity. I think cures for cancer have been suppressed for many decades now. The only area where there seems to be any improvement with treatment, is with more targeted radiation. Other than that, it feels like 1965. No effort is being made at researching the root causes of cancer, or prevention. And the industry marches on, making hundreds of billions on it. Perhaps trillions. Where is the real motivation to cure it, or prevent it?

15 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Forgive me for having my doubts, but the medical industry, big pharma, the FDA and the industrial/hospital complex in the US is not exactly the paragon of integrity. I think cures for cancer have been suppressed for many decades now. The only area where there seems to be any improvement with treatment, is with more targeted radiation. Other than that, it feels like 1965. No effort is being made at researching the root causes of cancer, or prevention. And the industry marches on, making hundreds of billions on it. Perhaps trillions. Where is the real motivation to cure it, or prevent it?

Year in Review: Five Important Clinical Advances in Cancer in 2020 | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (mskcc.org)

 

Some interesting information in the link above, and I recently went to a presentation at Bangkok Phuket Hospital which showed the latest advance in cancer treatment, whereby the bodies own immune system is used to fight cancer cells, and this is done by "un-cloaking/unmasking" the rogue cancer cells allowing the immune cells to recognise them, and thereby attack them.

 

If there was just one cause of cancer, then it would be a much easier disease to cure, but that is not the case unfortunately, and genes go rogue and researchers don't quite understand why, although more advances are being made in this area.

 

In my opinion, some great advances have been made and I'm forever hopeful that in my lifetime we may see a couple more major breakthroughs.
 

 

Let’s all hope it pans out we could all certainly use some good news on the health front

39 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

No effort is being made at researching the root causes of cancer, or prevention. And the industry marches on, making hundreds of billions on it. Perhaps trillions. Where is the real motivation to cure it, or prevent it?

The causes of cancer are pretty well known. 96% poisons and toxins entering the body; sometimes over decades. The other 4% is a mix of hereditary aspects and unknowns. In the western world food, air and water are reliable sources for body contaminations.

 

Regarding the US (particularly), big business, big industry, and big pharma have always put profits before people's health. Until that changes cancers will continue.

 

The body is perfectly capable of looking after itself. It will fight off poisons if it is looked after (commonly called the immune system). However, sometimes (often) the body simply cannot cope with the sheer amount of toxins and cancerous cells take control.

 

I make you right Mike about 'motivation'. There seems precious little, and even high-profile advocates for a cleaner environment are sidelined and taken down. I am thinking here of Robert Kennedy Jnr, who has been fighting for an environment clean-up for decades but hardly gets air time.

35 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Forgive me for having my doubts, but the medical industry, big pharma, the FDA and the industrial/hospital complex in the US is not exactly the paragon of integrity. I think cures for cancer have been suppressed for many decades now. The only area where there seems to be any improvement with treatment, is with more targeted radiation. Other than that, it feels like 1965. No effort is being made at researching the root causes of cancer, or prevention. And the industry marches on, making hundreds of billions on it. Perhaps trillions. Where is the real motivation to cure it, or prevent it?

My opinion .........

I always assumed cancer was deliberate.

But freely admit to being paranoid.

13 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

My opinion .........

I always assumed cancer was deliberate.

But freely admit to being paranoid.

I'd like to examine that BMT.

 

Cancers are fundamentally caused by toxins and poisons entering the body and overwhelming the body's natural defences.

 

Cancer is big business in the western world. Big Pharma has a tablet, capsule, medicine, injection or treatment for all occasions. And if the side-effects are not so good! Not to worry; there are more medications that can suppress the  bad reactions. 

 

This data can easily be found on the internet; the US ranks 26th in terms of health in the western world, while being by far the most expensive.

 

You are not paranoid my friend. Far from it.

 

1 hour ago, Kelsall said:

President Trump is no longer in office. 

They just don't get it! Biden has been in power for 43 days and what has he done for America? He is going to put Americans in the poor house with all this spending. And put many out of work and homeless with open borders. The Dems. just don't care what happens as long as they are ok.

1 minute ago, vandeventer said:

They just don't get it! Biden has been in power for 43 days and what has he done for America? He is going to put Americans in the poor house with all this spending. And put many out of work and homeless with open borders. The Dems. just don't care what happens as long as they are ok.

Some Americans will be put out of work and some will be put in work as under all presidents.

No president is an all powerful God.

There are strong limitations to presidential powers.

For example the sensible transition to a 15 dollar minimum wage can't happen unless the democrats decide to change the rules of the senate.

There are no open borders. To suggest that there are is just hate mongering hyperbole. 

20 hours ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

Snopes confirms the truth of the facts and desperately tries to spin it, but fails as it provides no details on what the funds raised were supposed to be used for

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-cancer-charity/

I don't understand how you can have read that Snopes article (if you did) and then so totally misrepresent what it says.

 

It quite correctly and totally accurately points out that 

Quote

Although the charity spent no money on cancer research grants, this fact is misleadingly framed in that the Biden Cancer Initiative wasn't a grant-giving organization.

 

You can't look at an organisation that stated quite clearly on its own website that it was not intended to give any grants and then complain that it didn't give any grants.

 

As to it not explaining what the Charity did with its money that's also untrue - the article states that:

Quote

As The Associated Press reported in 2019, the charity “promoted nearly 60 partnerships with drug companies, health care firms, charities and other organizations that pledged more than $400 million to improve cancer treatment.”

 

Yes.

Government should have a role in public policy fighting major diseases. 

Covid 19, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity which is a major risk factor for all of the above. 

Having an actual national health care system would be a good start. 

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Forgive me for having my doubts, but the medical industry, big pharma, the FDA and the industrial/hospital complex in the US is not exactly the paragon of integrity. I think cures for cancer have been suppressed for many decades now. The only area where there seems to be any improvement with treatment, is with more targeted radiation. Other than that, it feels like 1965. No effort is being made at researching the root causes of cancer, or prevention. And the industry marches on, making hundreds of billions on it. Perhaps trillions. Where is the real motivation to cure it, or prevent it?

There are much development in cancer cures than radiation therapy although most are still work in progress. There are also research development on gene therapy. 

https://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com/experimental-cancer-treatments/

1 hour ago, Kelsall said:

President Trump is no longer in office. 

 

Welcome back to the reality based universe.

39 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

My opinion .........

I always assumed cancer was deliberate.

But freely admit to being paranoid.

It didn’t take long.

8 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

There are much development in cancer cures than radiation therapy although most are still work in progress. There are also research development on gene therapy. 

https://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com/experimental-cancer-treatments/

Wonderful link, thank you Eric.

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Forgive me for having my doubts, but the medical industry, big pharma, the FDA and the industrial/hospital complex in the US is not exactly the paragon of integrity. I think cures for cancer have been suppressed for many decades now. The only area where there seems to be any improvement with treatment, is with more targeted radiation. Other than that, it feels like 1965. No effort is being made at researching the root causes of cancer, or prevention. 

That's just not true though is it?

 

I subscribe to a daily newsletter from a site called Technology Networks. Not a day goes by when there isn't at least one story (and often several) about groundbreaking and/or incredibly promising new developments in cancer research.

 

Here's a link to the section of their website dedicated to cancer research.

 

Cancer Research News 

 

Take a look - I think you'll find that there's an awful lot more going on, than you could ever have imagined.