over the moon

md anderson announced a new initiative called "the moon shots program" which will invest up to $3 billion in cancer research.

as noted in the press release,

"The Moon Shots Program takes its inspiration from President John Kennedy’s famous 1962 speech, made 50 years ago this month at Rice University, just a mile from the main MD Anderson campus. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade … because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are

unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win,” Kennedy said.

“Generations later, the Moon Shots Program signals our confidence that the path to curing cancer is in clearer sight than at any other time in history,” said Ronald A. DePinho, M.D., MD Anderson’s president. “Humanity urgently needs bold action to defeat cancer. I believe that we have many of the tools we need to pick the fight of the 21st century. Let’s focus our energies on approaching cancer comprehensively and

systematically, with the precision of an engineer, always asking

… ‘What can we do to directly impact patients?’”

The inaugural moon shots

The program, initially targeting eight cancers, will bring together sizable multidisciplinary groups of MD

Anderson researchers and clinicians to mount comprehensive attacks on:

•

acute myeloid leukemia/myelodysplastic syndrome;

•

chronic lymphocytic leukemia;

•

melanoma;

•

lung cancer;

•

prostate cancer, and

•

triple-negative breast and ovarian cancers – two cancers linked at the molecular level.

Six moon shot teams, representing these eight cancers, were selected based on rigorous criteria that assess

not only the current state of scientific knowledge of the disease across the entire cancer care continuum

from prevention to survivorship, but also the strength and breadth of the assembled teams and the

potential for near-term measurable success in terms of cancer mortality.

Each moon shot will receive an infusion of funds and other resources needed to work on ambitious and

innovative projects prioritized for patient impact, ranging from basic and translational research to

biomarker-driven novel clinical trials, to behavioral interventions and public policy initiatives."

melanoma is one of the eight targeted cancers.

hope for a cure. if not for me, for others to come.

so thankful for md anderson and all of their efforts to find cures and support cancer patients.

they intend to win. i believe they will.