HHS Releases National Cancer Plan to Further Cancer Moonshot

On April 3, 2023, the United States HHS released detailed information for a National Cancer Plan. The plan aims to facilitate the Cancer Moonshot initiative. The Biden administration reignited the Cancer Moonshot in 2022. Initially launched in 2016, the program was redeveloped to reduce cancer mortality by 50% in the next 25 years.

“The President’s Cancer Moonshot has galvanized the goal of advancing the fight against cancer,” said Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, Director of the National Cancer Institute, in the HHS press release. “The National Cancer Plan is a vision and a roadmap for how we can make faster progress against this all-too-common disease. By working together, we can achieve the Cancer Moonshot goal of reducing the cancer death rate by 50% within 25 years.”

To develop the plan, the HHS collaborated with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a subset of the NIH. The program has goals, strategies, and a call to action. Each component is critical to ensuring that the plan can be executed and medical advancements can be made in oncology.

In the document introducing the goals, the HHS outlines eight objectives they hope to achieve:

1. Preventing cancer by using strategies to reduce risks
2. Early cancer detection
3. Researching and advancing treatments for more effective protocols
4. Reducing inequities in cancer risk, incidence, side effects, and mortality
5. Providing evidence-based, patient-centered, optimal care
6. Engaging patients and high-risk individuals
7. Improving secure data sharing and utility
8. Curating a diverse research and healthcare workforce

Under each goal, the plan outlined strategies for achieving each goal. For example, prevention strategies include addressing factors that can increase cancer risk and working toward cancer vaccines. Early cancer detection strategies include developing new diagnostic tools.

Improving access to resources and emphasizing the importance of researching rare cancers are essential strategies for developing effective treatments. Eliminating inequities may be achieved by promoting diverse cancer clinical trials.

While this is not an exhaustive list of strategies, the report issued by the HHS provides additional details on the process to achieve each goal, its current state, and examples of the research or actions that have worked toward accomplishing this goal.

“Through the Cancer Moonshot, NCI is updating its clinical trial infrastructure and developing new ways to allow more patients to participate in cancer research. This includes support for a wide range of clinical research, such as observational studies, biomarker development, and investigations using data from cancer registries and electronic health records,” concluded the HHS plan.