Everyone Has a Role in NCI’s National Cancer Plan

April 18, 2023 by Alec Stone MA, MPA, Former ONS Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy

Recharting the trajectory of cancer in the United States requires involvement from everyone—government and private investors, researchers, clinicians, and people with cancer, their caregivers, and advocates, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) said in April 2023 as it launched the National Cancer Plan (https://nationalcancerplan.cancer.gov/). The plan supports the Cancer Moonshot initiative (https://voice.ons.org/advocacy/biden-cancer-moonshot-relaunch-will-end-cancer-as-we-know-it) and “aligns broad societal engagement and focuses on critical needs to end cancer as we know it.”

Bringing together critical stakeholders, NCI collaborated with the National Institutes of Health, Cancer Moonshot, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and cancer community representatives to build the plan, which will (https://nationalcancerplan.cancer.gov/about) “evolve over time as research continues, advancements are made, and lessons are learned across the cancer care community.”

The plan contains three key elements (https://nationalcancerplan.cancer.gov/about):

Under the first two elements, the plan has eight goals (https://nationalcancerplan.cancer.gov/about):

“The President’s Cancer Moonshot has galvanized the goal of advancing the fight against cancer,” Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, NCI director, said (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/04/03/hhs-releases-national-cancer-plan.html). “The National Cancer Plan is a vision and a roadmap for how we can make faster progress against this all-too-common disease. By working together, we can achieve the Cancer Moonshot goal of reducing the cancer death rate by 50% within 25 years.”


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