Cancer Moonshot

First lady Jill Biden visited Fred Hutch last Friday to learn about our efforts to battle cancer and spoke about the White House’s Cancer Moonshot, a renewed, national commitment to finding a cure for the deadly disease.

The Bidens’ Cancer Moonshot initiative aims to prevent more than 4 million cancer deaths by 2047, and was first launched during President Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president.

“There are 18 million cancer survivors across our country and thanks to the amazing work being done right here, we’re adding to that number each day,” Biden said in her opening remarks. “I‘ve seen what’s possible when we invest in cutting-edge research. And I’ve seen that there’s so much hope to be found. I saw that hope here today, as well. Your work will change lives and save lives.”

Listening session

Moderated by Dr. Nancy Davidson, faculty from the Department of Medicine at the listening session included Dr. Veena Shankaran, who talked about a Fred Hutch study assessing outcomes in patients connected to nurse navigators who help with financial difficulties and otherwise support patients, and Rachel Yung, who talked about breast cancer screening and prevention, patient navigation, survivorship and increasing equity.