This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.

Nearly three years after the reignition of the Biden Cancer Moonshot, the work to end cancer as we know it has had a direct impact on American lives.

Today, the Biden Cancer Moonshot convened leaders and advocates to recognize the important progress made on a central priority of the Biden-Harris Administration, ending cancer as we know it. The event brought together the powerful and diverse Cancer Moonshot community to spotlight collective achievements and chart a course for the future through The Biden Cancer Moonshot: Ending Cancer As We Know It report and celebrate the enduring legacy of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s historic leadership of the Cancer Moonshot.  

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the Cancer Moonshot mobilized a whole-of-society approach through the first-ever Cancer Cabinet, collaborating on new actions to better prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer and support those facing this diagnosis. This includes significant impact against a core set of accomplishments:

  • Making extraordinary investments to prevent cancer—including protecting 100 million Americans from exposure to PFAS (so-called forever chemicals) and taking action to decrease smoking, the single largest driver of cancer deaths;
  • Bringing cancer screenings to more communities—effectively recovering from 10 million missed screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on equity;
  • Creating a new research agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)—and driving investment and innovation to reach more people and communities with breakthrough advances; and,
  • Delivering first-ever reimbursable navigation services—impacting millions of Americans facing cancer and other serious illness, and improving access and affordability of cancer care for all Americans.

Even as the Biden Cancer Moonshot has made historic progress to reduce cancer deaths and improve the experience of those touched by cancer, the work continues across the government and private sector, to achieve these ambitious goals.

Today’s announcements from the Biden Cancer Moonshot include:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a proposed rule that, if finalized, would set a maximum nicotine level in certain combustible tobacco products, including cigarettes, thereby making them minimally or non-addictive. Smoking is the single largest driver of cancer deaths in this country. This rule would be the first of its kind globally—and a major step forward to reduce tobacco-related disease and death for millions of Americans.  This rule puts the power back in the hands of individuals, enabling those who want to quit to be successful and preventing millions of youths and others from starting in the first place.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) will double its investment in research on early-onset cancers. With rising rates of early-onset cancers nationally, that is, cancers that typically impact older Americans being diagnosed at increasing levels in young adults, NCI commits to ensuring that accurate and meaningful data are available to researchers and the public. To this end, NCI is leading a new effort to focus on this issue and will leverage new investment in studies into the underlying biology, as well as those that will improve understanding for prevention, treatment, and post-diagnosis care.

NCI will post a Decentralizing Clinical Trials guide with strategies to improve trial efficiencies and expand access to trial participants. The White House Office of Science Technology and Policy convened experts in 2023 to identify strategies for incorporating more decentralized trial elements into cancer clinical trials aligned with recent FDA guidance. The group developed resources that will help agencies, researchers and providers design and conduct clinical trials with decentralized elements, e.g., relaxed or more lenient eligibility criteria, allowing telehealth visits, etc.—encompassing regulatory, site infrastructure, financial, and education elements.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is supporting community groups in addressing cancer-causing environmental exposures. CDC is partnering with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Center for Healthy Housing, and the Children’s Environmental Health Network to provide grants, subject matter expertise, and technical assistance for up to six community groups to examine concerns around cancer and the environment.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will expand access to cancer genetic testing and at-home colorectal cancer screening. By the end of fiscal year 2025, VA’s Comprehensive Genetic Service will increase cancer genetic testing use by 25%. Genetic testing looks for certain mutations in an individual’s genes that might indicate a higher risk of getting certain cancers, enabling preventative and screening interventions. Additionally, over the same timeframe, VA’s National Colorectal Cancer Screening Program will facilitate mailed fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) in at least 80% of eligible VA facilities. Currently, over 25,000 veterans receive mailed FIT kits each month. This outreach effort is expected to increase the proportion of veterans who are up to date with colorectal cancer screening, thereby promoting early detection and improved outcomes for those who develop cancer.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will finalize new actions to prevent cancer caused by the chemical ethylene oxide (EtO). EtO—a pesticide used in several applications including medical device sterilization and production of dried herbs and spices—is known to cause multiple cancers, including breast cancer, lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and myeloma. Workers who use EtO and people who live, work, and go to school near EtO facilities are at higher cancer risk due to their exposures. EPA’s new action will continue to lower worker exposure limits, finalize bans on several uses, improve air quality in facilities where EtO is used, and enhance monitoring—important steps forward to prevent EtO-caused cancers. The EPA previously took action on three chemicals associated with cancer. In December 2024, EPA finalized a rule to fully ban trichloroethylene—a carcinogenic chemical—to protect consumers, workers, and communities.  In addition, EPA banned most uses of perchloroethylene, and required worker protections for carbon tetrachloride, both of which are also known carcinogens.

An interagency task force through the Cancer Cabinet developed a Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) toolkit to guide data collection from those directly impacted by cancer. Successful implementation of PROs has been associated with increased patient-provider communication and improvements in survival and other health outcomes. Collaboration between the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) included the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Agency for Healthcare Research (AHRQ), the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy (ASTP), and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

CMS integrated electronic health record standards to improve standardized patient data collection, an important step to ensuring patients have access to usable forms of their medical data. The Enhancing Oncology Model was the first model to successfully deploy Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, a set of standards that allow for exchanging health care data between health systems, to collect sociodemographic and clinical data. This use case for USCDI+ Cancer is pioneering work in data standardization, which is critical to enable patients accessing their health data.

Expanding the ASCEND for Better Health Initiative at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department will fund three new nutrition hubs in 2025 to advance community engagement efforts in Hispanic, Tribal, and Insular Territory communities. These hubs, in addition to the existing USDA Nutrition Hubs focused in Black communities, will translate precision nutrition research into culturally-appropriate nutrition messaging that will promote healthy eating and support the prevention of diet-related cancers, among other relevant chronic diseases and conditions.

Adding to the over 220 private, academic, and community organizations across the country who have made important progress as part of the Biden Cancer Moonshot, the following organizations stepped up to announce new actions to ensure all Americans can equitably benefit from cancer advancements, innovation, screening, and more:

Academy Health, through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, launched the Transforming Cancer Navigation with Open Data & APIs Challenge to expand and enhance patient navigation, while leveraging clinical cancer research and health outcomes data sources. The challenge is to create solutions that are inclusive, user-friendly, and capable of providing comprehensive support to cancer patient navigators, helping them perform their duties more efficiently and effectively These solutions could improve patient outcomes by reducing diagnosis-to-treatment times, ensuring treatment adherence, and addressing social determinants of health such as food, housing, and transportation needs. The challenge is being run on the HeroX platform, in coordination with the American Cancer Society, CancerX, MITRE, EMI Advisors, VA, HHS ASTP, and Innovation Horizons, among others.

To ensure equitable access to supportive care, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Moving Through Cancer Initiative mapped exercise oncology program availability in the U.S. and identified disparities by race/ethnicity, SES, and geography. ACSM, American Cancer Society, and American Society of Clinical Oncology published clinical guidelines recommending exercise to improve symptoms and treatment outcomes for people living with cancer. To further address symptoms of underserved people living with cancer, Moving Through Cancer is developing a toolkit and course to integrate exercise programming that will be available in 2026 through the University of Pittsburgh Center for Teaching and Learning.

The Anticancer Lifestyle Program (ACLP) is expanding access to evidence-based, actionable tools for reducing environmental and toxic exposures. In early 2025, ACLP will launch the Spanish translation of a 7-Day Healthy Home Environment Kickstart, ensuring that Spanish-speaking communities can access this free, week-long program to reduce toxic chemicals in their homes and lower cancer risk. This initiative reflects ACLP’s commitment to addressing health disparities and supporting underserved communities.

Earli will expand their novel diagnostics platform to therapeutics beginning in 2025, using their technology to turn cancer cells into factories that consistently produce any desired marker or protein for better outcomes in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Ambiguous or non-existent cancer biomarkers, especially in early cancers, often make consistent diagnoses and treatment across patients very difficult. This will help stop unclear cancer diagnoses and treatment failures for millions of patients and fundamentally change how we approach cancer treatment by genetically forcing cancer cells to activate the immune system to attack cancer.Earli has now raised a total of $100M for this mission. 

In 2025, Elsevier Inc.’s oncology decision support, ClinicalPath, plans to launch new capabilities prompting oncologists to incorporate precision medicine in their treatment decision making while helping to reduce administrative burden. Supplemental to the latest evidence and guidance, these enhancements will enable clinicians to have direct access to their patient’s biomarker results at the point of care. This functionality helps to ensure that people living with cancer have access to innovative precision medicine treatment, including the latest clinical trials that apply to their disease and genomics.

Massive Bio is launching an advanced AI-powered clinical trial matching platform and pre-screening hubs to empower patients and communities with culturally competent, seamless trial navigation and ongoing support. This system ensures timely, personalized clinical trial access by leveraging real-world data and comprehensive genomic profiling to match patients with optimal trial opportunities. Launching in January 2025, this expansion initiative represents an initial investment of $15 million, and is expected to impact over 50,000 unique patients living with cancer annually, with a scalable goal of reaching 250,000 patients per year globally by 2027. The platform particularly focuses on underserved and underrepresented populations to ensure equitable access to clinical trials. Through this effort, Massive Bio is bridging critical gaps in care, accelerating access to the latest cancer treatments and improving outcomes for all.

The National Association for Veterans’ Research & Education Foundations (NAVREF) & the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) are launching an initiative to better enable the placement of prostate cancer clinical trials across the country to improve veterans’ health and wellbeing. As part of PCF’s $65 million Veterans’ Health Initiative, PCF is providing $50,000 to NAVREF to pilot a new data dashboard that would allow industry sponsors to more quickly identify communities across the country with veterans that would most benefit from potential studies and clinical trials.

POETIC, a network of 13 leading institutions for the treatment of children, adolescents and young adults with cancer, will enhance access to innovative clinical trials for kids facing cancer in underserved areas of the United States to advance the Cancer Moonshot goal of bringing the latest progress to patients and communities. Beginning in 2025, POETIC will collaborate with new sites to conduct an infant study across 27 institutions. This work builds on existing efforts who engage families in 10 states with high-need areas by providing education about clinical trials, and on-going collaboration with Stanford’s Office of Child Health Equity to strengthen state-led advocacy efforts.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation is launching the ShareForCures Alliance, a groundbreaking initiative designed to harness the collective power of women and transform the future of breast cancer research. The Alliance brings together diverse nonprofit organizations united in a shared goal: end breast cancer by accelerating the search for the cures. ShareForCures empowers individuals diagnosed with breast cancer to share their unique health data through Komen’s secure research platform, unlocking vital insights that drive meaningful progress against this disease.

The Together for Supportive Cancer Care coalition, the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation and Healing Works Foundation have partnered with TFA Analytics and C-TAC to develop pilot programs to align clinical and administrative standards and expand the evidence of delivering interdisciplinary supportive care to people with cancer. These organizations are putting together a national clinical advisory council and will convene health systems, health plans, serious illness coalitions in 4 states.  The project will work with partners to develop the care model and referral pathways, provide technical assistance and convene the sites regularly. The final report, data and tools will be finalized by December 2025. This study will help to demonstrate that early palliative care results in better outcomes, better quality of life and lower costs.  An update on this project will be presented at the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) conference in March.

To dramatically reduce mortality from lung cancer and improve access disparities by better enabling at-home screening, VisionGate will launch clinical collaborations to deploy its at-home collection test for early-stage lung cancer. Working with major cancer centers including Northwestern Medicine, HCA Healthcare (Sarah Cannon), and Kaiser Permanente in order to complete clinical trials, VisionGate will advance at-home lung cancer screening through its proprietary Cell-CT 3D cell analysis platform, which detects often symptomless stage 1 lung cancer with published 94% sensitivity, and without the burden of false positive indications.

ZERO Prostate Cancer will launch a transformative initiative to increase prostate cancer survival rates among the highest-risk populations. This is a bold patient-centric approach to increasing awareness and screening and improving the quality and quantity of life by implementing solutions in the highest-risk, underserved communities. Launching in 2025, the initiative aims to achieve an unprecedented reduction in late-stage diagnoses, especially among Black Men and Veterans.

###

Scroll to Top Scroll to Top
Top