President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden announced new Cancer Moonshot goals. Biden had introduced the Cancer Moonshot as Vice President in 2016. The new goals are ambitious: reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent 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.
The Bidens called on individuals, health care providers, health care researchers, and leaders across sectors to help achieve this feat. And recently, a group of cancer researchers-most affiliated with the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-published a paper analyzing whether this goal is feasible and to offer some recommendations on how to get there (Cancer Discov 2023; https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-23-0208).
"We sought to understand the feasibility of this goal by estimating what cancer death rates might be in 2047 should current trends continue. We also considered the most promising and realistic opportunities to further reduce cancer death rates through prevention, early detection, and more effective treatment," the paper's lead author, Meredith S. Shiels, PhD, MHS, a senior investigator at the NCI, shared with Oncology Times.
The researchers estimated trends in U.S. cancer mortality from 2000 to 2019 for all cancers and the six leading types (lung, colorectum, pancreas, breast, prostate, and liver). They found that cancer death rates overall declined by 1.4 percent per year from 2000 to 2015, accelerating to 2.3 percent per year from 2016 to 2019, driven by strong declines in lung cancer mortality (-4.7% per year from 2014 to 2019). Recent declines in colorectal (-2.0% per year from 2010 to 2019) and breast cancer death rates (-1.2% per year from 2013 to 2019) also contributed.
Trends for other cancer types were less promising, the researchers noted in the paper. To achieve the Moonshot goal, progress against lung, colorectal, and breast cancer deaths needs to be maintained and/or accelerated, and new strategies for prostate, liver, pancreatic, and other cancers are needed. Here's more on what the group found-and some of the most promising opportunities for progress, according to Shiels.
1 What would you say are the key findings of the paper?
"The ambitious Moonshot goal is potentially attainable by expanding access to the means we already know work to prevent, detect, and treat cancer. The trends over the past 20 years are the result of decades of investment by the NCI and others. If those trends continue, we will come close to the 50 percent goal. To attain it by 2047, we need to accelerate the reduction in cancer mortality from -2.3 percent per year to -2.7 percent per year.
"However, accelerated discovery is also critically needed, as improvements in early detection and cancer treatment could substantially benefit patients and contribute to reduced rates of cancer mortality overall.
"What we know works includes further reductions in the prevalence of cigarette smoking, increased uptake of colorectal cancer screening, increased use of hormonal therapy in breast cancer, and increased use of HBV and HCV therapies to reduce risk of liver cancer. Importantly, we must address underutilization of, and disparities in, access to prevention, screening, and treatment."
2 What are the biggest hurdles to meeting the Cancer Moonshot goals?
"Addressing cancer health equity will be a key factor in reaching the Moonshot goal. Continued research investment is also needed to develop more effective treatments and improved screening tools.
"While ambitious, I am optimistic that the Moonshot goal could be achieved if we maximize access to and utilization of what is known to work in terms of prevention, early detection, and treatment."
3 What's the bottom line that practicing oncologists and cancer care providers should know about this paper and data?
"In addition to continued innovation, substantial progress toward this goal could be accomplished by increasing use of what is already known to prevent, detect, and treat common cancers. Addressing underutilization of and disparities in access to prevention, screening, and treatment must play a central role as we work toward the goal of reducing cancer mortality for the entire U.S. population over the coming decades.
A Collection of 3 Questions
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