Watch: Biden Announces $150m Funding For Cancer ‘moonshot’ Initiative
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Watch as Joe Biden announced on Tuesday, 13 August, that he is putting $150m in new federal funding towards developing technology to better help surgeons successfully remove cancerous tumours.
The money is the latest injection of cash in the president’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative that aims to reduce the US cancer death rate by at least half by 2047.
Mr Biden detailed the programme, that he and the First Lady have spearheaded, in a speech in New Orleans.
Almost two million Americans are newly diagnosed with solid tumour cancers each year and they often undergo surgical removal as the first step in their treatment, the White House said.
New microscopes and imaging technology hope to make these surgeries more effective, in turn reducing the need for repeat surgeries and decreasing the damage to healthy tissue, ultimately saving and extending lives, officials added.