A day after it was announced he had prostate cancer, former President Joe Biden posted on Monday that “cancer touches us all” — and now a battle he has fought for a decade has become even more intensely personal.
He had previously led the federal government’s effort to “end cancer as we know it” through a cancer “moonshot” initiative just months after his son, Beau Biden, died from glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, in 2015.
Biden first oversaw the cancer “moonshot” in 2016 while vice president under former President Barack Obama. At that time, Congress authorized $1.8 billion in funding for the government’s research initiative over seven years with a goal of eradicating cancer.
In 2022, as president, Biden relaunched the effort with the goal of cutting the death rate from cancer in half over the next quarter-century and ending “cancer as we know it,” he said. Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
“I committed to this fight when I was vice president,” Biden said at a relaunch event in February 2022. “It’s one of the reasons why quite frankly why I ran for president. Let there be no doubt, now that I am president, this is a presidential, White House priority. Period.”
President Joe Biden speaks at the Department of Labor, Dec. 16, 2024 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, Files
The initiative worked to improve cancer screening availability; established a “cancer cabinet” involving private sector, foundations and academic institutions; developed cancer research; enhanced data sharing and more, according to a White House fact sheet.
The Cancer Moonshot has supported 250 research projects and more than 70 programs and consortia that have helped to achieve goals toward ending cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. The Biden White House also boasted that the initiative led 225 private companies, non-profits, academic institutions and patient groups to develop “new actions and collaborations.”
President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Sept. 30, 2024.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP, Files
Biden has made the fight against cancer a main mission in life, he said. After the Obama presidency, Biden and former first lady Jill Biden founded a nonprofit foundation dedicated to finding a cure for cancer.
“When we left office, Jill and I knew we had to keep going through, keep it up. So, we initiated the Biden Cancer Initiative. We focused on turning the moonshot into a movement, not just a shot, a movement,” Biden said in 2022.
Biden’s office on Sunday said he had been diagnosed on Friday with prostate cancer, saying that while it was “a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”
Biden and his family are “reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” according to the statement.
Biden and his wife Jill on Monday said they were thankful for the “love and support” that had received after the former president’s diagnosis.
“Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places,” he posted on X. “Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”
