On Thursday, April 25, 2019, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that he will be running for the Democratic Presidential nomination. But back in 2016, President Obama called on Biden to “lead a new, national ‘Moonshot’ initiative to eliminate cancer as we know it.” So what’s been happening with the Cancer Moonshot^SM since then?

“Cancer Moonshot” by World Economic Forum is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

First, there’s been a name change. Cancer Moonshot 2020 is now known as Cancer Breakthroughs 2020. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is working to implement Cancer Moonshot^SM. In a November 19, 2018 update, NCI Acting Deputy Director Dinah Singer, PhD, explained that the Moonshot is now moving from planning to research. A critical first step was the formation of the Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP) and the publication of their 2016 report on recommendations for accelerating cancer research. NCI is now in the process of operationalizing the recommendations from this report.

On April 19, 2019, Claire Dietz reported in The Cancer Letter that NCI Board of Scientific Advisors had approved eight concepts as Request for Applications (RFAs), including three Cancer Moonshot^SM  concepts at a March 25, 2019 meeting. One of the Cancer Moonshot^SM  concepts centers around next generation technology for next gen cancer models (NGCMs).

Learn more about research initiatives Cancer Moonshot^SM is supporting.

A selection of cancer research in the news this past week…

• An animal study on breast cancer showed that eating within just an eight-hour window every day could “prevent the development of tumours”. The study’s lead researcher, Dr. Manasi Das, suggested that “this intervention may be effective in breast cancer prevention and therapy”. The study on time restricted eating was formally presented at ENDO 2019 conference (March 23-26, New Orleans).
• Researchers from Tulane University established that circadian disruption caused by exposure to dim light at night may contribute to the metastatic spread of breast cancer to the bone. This animal study was also presented at ENDO 2019 conference.
• Also focused on breast cancer, a trial conducted at Marshall University demonstrated that walnut consumption altered gene expressions related to tumor progression and could “decrease breast cancer growth and survival”. The new study on this ongoing research is in press and is due to be published in Nutrition Research. Note: Primary funding for this study “was from the California Walnut Commission to WEH”.
• Researchers from Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine conducted a study that uncovered “how cancer cells with identical genomes can respond differently to the same therapy”. The study published in Nature Communications established the “relationship between mitochondria variability and drug response” which “may lead to more effective targeted cancer treatments”.
• University of Bradford and University of Surrey, UK researchers discovered that prostate cancer cells “spit out” a protein from their nucleus taken up by other cells, including normal cells, which provokes tumor growth. The study was published in Scientific Reports.
• A study conducted by researchers from the UK and Spain determined that a protein produced by melanoma cells triggers reprogramming of healthy immune cells to prevent them from attacking cancer cells and to help them survive instead. The study was published in Cell.

Many younger patients see more than one doctor and face misdiagnoses before being given a diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC), according to recent research presented during a webcast ahead of the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting.

Researchers reviewed 1195 online surveys completed by individuals who were diagnosed with CRC before the age of 50 and found that 57% were diagnosed between the ages of 40 and 49; 33% were diagnosed between 30 and 39; and only 10% were diagnosed before the age of 30. Thirty percent had a family history of CRC and 8% were diagnosed with Lynch syndrome, which can be a genetic predisposition to the disease.

The majority of these younger patients (70%) were diagnosed with stage III or stage IV disease – a contrast to their older counterparts, who are more likely to be diagnosed at stage I or II disease, according to the researchers.

The researchers attribute this difference to lack of awareness and misdiagnosis, as over 60% of these patients waited over a year to see a doctor, and 67% of these patients saw at least two doctors before their diagnosis.

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Learn more about how MSKCC is fighting colon cancer. The Infographic on this post is courtesy of the National Cancer Institute.