Participation in Cancer Moonshot

CDC Helps “Shoot for the Moon” — Blog post by Dr. Lisa Richardson

On June 29, 2016, Vice President Joe Biden convened a National Cancer Moonshot Summit at Howard University, in Washington, D.C., as part of a national day of action that included more than 270 events in communities across the United States. More than 25 Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) representatives attended one of two regional events in Atlanta. Dr. Lisa Richardson, DCPC’s Division Director, gave introductory remarks to a gathering of more than 200 people at the Northside Hospital event as CDC’s Principal Deputy to the Cancer Moonshot Task Force. In conjunction with the summit, the Vice President announced a set of new public- and private-sector actions to drive progress toward ending cancer.

Faye Wong, MPH, Chief of DCPC’s Prevention Services Branch, participated in the National Cancer Moonshot Roundtables: Innovations in Cancer Prevention meeting in Chicago on July 12, 2016. She was a Reaction Leader on the topic, “Using What We’ve Learned: Practical Perspectives on Cancer Prevention and Early Detection.” This was one of three topic-featured panels with dynamic participants offering their views from government and from the public and private sectors. The other topics were “Research to Prevent and Detect Cancer Early” and “Ensuring Equal Opportunity for Cancer Prevention and Early Detection.” The roundtable is preparing a report that will be submitted to Vice President Biden’s Moonshot Initiative.

The Cancer Moonshot Task Force’s report, released on October 17, 2016, featured future CDC strategies related to—

• Tobacco Control: Despite declines in the past decade, disparities in smoking prevalence persist. CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) propose further exploring activities to support states in replicating the previous successes.
• Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination: HPV vaccination prevents cancer. Doctors can increase efforts to explain the importance of the HPV vaccination to parents. CDC’s approach would help health care providers increase HPV vaccination rates and raise public awareness about the benefits of the vaccine and the risks associated with HPV-related diseases.
• Colorectal Cancer: About one in three adults aged 50 to 70 years has not been tested for colorectal cancer according to recommendations set forth by the United States Preventive Services Task Force. CDC proposes to continue to leverage partnerships to realize the ambitious national colorectal cancer screening goals proposed by Healthy People 2020 and the National Colorectal Roundtable’s “80% by 2018” initiative.
• Modernization of Data Collection: Despite the development and implementation of data standards over the last decade, some health data remains stored in medical records, laboratory reports, and other clinical reports as text narratives or clinical notes. Over the next 2 years, CDC and the Food and Drug Administration will collaborate to convert different types of unstructured health data to structured data for easier integration into databases.