First Lady Jill Biden is making her first trip to the Bayou State today and visiting the Louisiana Cancer Research Center in New Orleans. Her visit underscores Cancer Moonshot, the initiative to cut the cancer death rate in half over the next 25 years. Dr. Prescott Deininger is the Director of the Tulane Cancer Center.
“Our goal is to make things happen more aggressively by including everybody to get the critical mass of people who can interact and make things happen faster,” said Deininger.
Biden will be joined by Senator Bill Cassidy and his wife Dr. Laura Cassidy, who will highlight the importance of colorectal cancer screenings and investing in cancer research.
The Louisiana Cancer Research Center is a consortium of LSU Health New Orleans, Tulane Health Center, Ochsner Health, and Xavier University. Deininger said the LCRC was funded by the state more than two decades ago.
“For us, it’s a great thing to highlight cause I don’t know that many people know about the Louisiana Cancer Research Center, and yet it’s been a major state initiative for about twenty years,” said Deininger.
Deininger said one of their top scientists will talk with the First Lady about vaccines that are helping eradicate some forms of cancer like cervical cancer.
“So that’s one of the pieces the other piece is going to highlight the NCORP (National Community Oncology Research Program) grant that LSU heads up that reaches out across the state to put patients on clinical trials,” said Deininger.
Deininger said the key to Cancer Moonshot is that it’s a big ambitious push to unite conglomerates like the LCRC together with other consortiums to make even bigger strides in cancer research.
President Biden will ask congress to allocate more than $2.8 billion to fund Cancer Moonshot.
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