Washington.— The president Joe Biden seeks to reduce cancer deaths in the United States by 50% within the next 25 yearsafter expanding an initiative he launched in 2016, when he was Barack Obama’s vice president.
Biden set a 25-year deadline to meet the goal in the US, part of a broader plan to eradicate cancer as it is known today, said official sources who gave a preview of the announcement that will be made on Wednesday, and who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It’s a topic of deep personal meaning to Joe Biden, whose eldest son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.
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The pain suffered by Biden is shared by many Americans. The American Cancer Society estimates that this year there will be 1,918,030 cancer cases and 609,360 deaths this year.
What Biden is looking for is essentially save more than 300,000 lives a yearsomething the administration sees as possible, since the age-adjusted cancer death rate has already dropped 25% in the past two decades.
Biden is scheduled to make the announcement from the White House on Wednesday accompanied by his wife, Jill, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Other officials and legislators will also be there, as well as cancer survivors, family members, caregivers, activists and representatives of research organizations.
As part of the initiative, Biden will create a “cancer cabinet” in which 18 federal departments and agencies will be represented, including the departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans, Defense, Energy and Agriculture.
There were no plans to announce funding commitments on Wednesday, although the administration will outline its plans to reduce cancer incidence through more diagnostic tests and by eliminating social inequalities in treatment supply.
The coronavirus pandemic has consumed resources from the health system and has caused the population to stop attending some 9.5 million diagnostic tests.
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The White House will host a conference on the initiative, and a series of roundtable discussions on the subject will continue.
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