Expert on Biden’s cancer moonshot: ‘Now is the time'

In an address this week, President Joe Biden appealed to Americans to make fighting cancer a “national purpose.” At the center of the effort is the White House’s goal to cut U.S. cancer fatalities by 50% over the next 25 years.

Dr. Nora Disis, the director of the UW Medicine Cancer Vaccine Institute, says great gains in understanding cancer have helped to fuel the president’s optimism. Disis currently leads multiple clinical trials of breast cancer vaccines.

“I think that there is an understanding now that we've kind of reached a tipping point, where our understanding is so precise into what the major pathways we need to target,” said Disis, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “Now is the time to make an investment to end it, and I think the end could be in sight."

Download broadcast-ready soundbites featuring Disis reacting to President Biden’s statement on cancer this week.