A great mentor and professor once said: “treat all difficulties in life not as they are problems, but as challenges that need to be overcome.”
Undoubtedly, one of the paramount health challenges of the early 21st century is cancer, or cancers, to be more exact.
The MD Anderson Cancer Centre, in Houston, Texas, is embarking on an unprecedentedly ambitious plan to cure cancer. Dubbed the Moon Shots Program, the endeavor aims to “adopt a more goal-oriented mentality, ignore the usual strictures on resources that encumber academic research, and use the breakthrough technology available today,” according to Ronald DePinho, MD, president of the MD Anderson Cancer Centre.
The centre, specializing in cancer treatment and management, has been ranked the number one US cancer centre nine times in the past 11 years. It has done this by showing continued dedication for advancing medical research. MD Anderson will bring together numerous multidisciplinary teams and a combined budget of $3 billion to start the cancer Moon Shots revolution. The program will focus on eight cancer types: acute myeloid leukemia/myelodysplastic syndrome, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, melanoma (skin cancer), lung cancer, prostate cancer, and triple-negative breast and ovarian cancers (linked at the molecular level).
MD Anderson says that cancer research occurring in other cancer types and chronic illness diseases will not be halted and will continue to benefit from a combined budget of $700 million. Implementation of the program is set to begin early in 2013, with the program running at full capacity by the middle of 2013.
Sources: Science Daily, cancermoonshots.org
