The National Cancer Moonshot Begins to Take Shape

Yesterday, I attended the first meeting of the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force, presided over by the President and the Vice President.  Leaders across the Federal government committed to realizing the vision of this exciting new effort to fight cancer. There was a lot of energy in the room — the kind that comes with a shared desire to make a positive difference in people’s lives and the awareness that the United States has the brainpower and determination to do it. We are, indeed, a nation of innovators. The Administration also released the first details of the initiative, calling for $680 million in NIH’s FY2017 budget to support seven scientific areas ripe for advancement. To share the news, the National Cancer Institute Acting Director Dr. Doug Lowy and I fielded many questions from the public during a Twitter chat using #CancerMoonshot, where it was apparent that we weren’t the only ones excited about the effort. One of the most-asked questions was how can people get involved to help shape the initiative. To be clear, stakeholder input will be critical to the success of the National Cancer Moonshot and there will be numerous opportunities in the coming months to share your ideas and input. I encourage you to sign up for updates on the NCI Cancer Moonshot web page to stay apprised of the latest developments.

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Institutes of Health