VP Joe Biden to Speak at ASCO 2016 Special Session
Curious to see how 30,000 practicing oncologists react to this and what the level of interest will be in what the VP has to say. My general sense over these past few months among oncologists is a fair amount of skepticism to the initiative with specific regards to how data is shared and exchanged in clinical trials and interoperability. ASCO has come up with “big data” initiatives of its own as well. I think we all want to be a part of increasing the rate of progress against cancer, predicted to surpass cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death in the US in coming years, I just think the policy makers leading the efforts are naïve as to its cost and intrinsic obstacles from R&D to bedside care.
ASCO recently announced that Vice President Joe Biden will attend the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting to deliver remarks during a special session on Monday, June 5, 2016, in the afternoon (time TBD) in Hall B1.
Vice President Biden will discuss the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative — his ambitious project to double the pace of progress against cancer in coming years. Since the Moonshot Initiative launched in January, ASCO has worked with the Vice President to support and offer guidance on the Moonshot Initiative’s comprehensive approach to accelerate the discovery of new cancer treatments, including issues related to enrollment in clinical trials, access to care, federal funding, and information technology and interoperability.
We are excited to welcome Vice President Biden to our meeting, which focuses on the theme of collective wisdom. Like the Moonshot itself, the Annual Meeting reflects a bold commitment to bring the cancer community together and share knowledge to improve the care of patients.
In meeting with Vice President Biden, ASCO has repeatedly stressed how important “big data” initiatives will be to the future of cancer care. And as you know, ASCO has already embarked on two big data initiatives of its own: CancerLinQ™, a powerful platform containing rapidly growing amounts of real-world cancer information; and the Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) — ASCO’s first clinical trial. The precision medicine trial is evaluating molecularly targeted cancer drugs and collecting data on clinical outcomes to learn about additional uses of these drugs outside of indications already approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In addition to these, and based on input from you, we are also preparing to submit a set of concrete ideas for the Moonshot Initiative’s consideration to further advance progress against cancer. Submissions can be made at CancerResearchIdeas.cancer.gov or by email to cancerresearch@nih.gov.
The Vice President’s address will be webcast live, so if you’re not attending the meeting, be on the lookout for details on how you can listen in.
