During his 2016 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama declared war on cancer.
He announced the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative, pledging $1 billion to jumpstart new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer. Vice President Joe Biden will lead Moonshot: The project will tap the work of researchers from leading cancer centers across America in an effort to eliminate the disease as we know it.
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UPCI Joins Moonshot Initiative
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), partner with UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, is one of only 45 Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute and is partnered with UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, which has a network of more than 40 treatment facilities. It is one of the largest integrated community networks in the country.
UPCI has hundreds of researchers who develop ways to diagnose, treat, and even prevent cancers. Discoveries in the labs eventually are used to care for patients.
Many of UPCI’s research projects overlap with the goals of Moonshot:
- Together, experts from UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and UPCI developed Via Oncology Pathways. Pathways helps ensure that patients receive the best therapies for their types of cancers, which improves outcomes. Health and research experts update Pathways regularly to make sure leading treatment plans are available to patients. The Pathways database is used for the development of clinical trials.
- UPCI and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center are breaking ground in cancer immunology and virology. Of the seven viruses known to cause cancer in humans, two were discovered by UPCI scientists.
- A great deal of genetic testing is needed for discoveries like the above. For instance, UPMC scientists developed a technique that made it possible for them to identify Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV). MCV causes about 80 percent of Merkel cell carcinomas.
- UPCI and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center are involved in the Big Data to Knowledge initiative, or BD2K. The National Institutes of Health created this program to help find the best ways to use health data to develop more personalized medicine. The University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Biomedical Informatics Center for Causal Discovery is an original member of the BD2K initiative and one of only 11 such centers in the nation to receive this award.
On Wed., June 29, the White House will host a national cancer summit. UPCI with UPMC Hillman Cancer Center is the only cancer program in western Pennsylvania to host its own regional, interactive summit that same day. Cancer patients, researchers, advocates, and health care professionals will discuss ideas on how to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
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The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center provides world-class cancer care, from diagnosis to treatment, to help you in your cancer battle. We are the only comprehensive cancer center in our region, as designated by the National Cancer Institute. We have more than 60 locations throughout western Pennsylvania and Ohio, with more than 200 oncologists. Our internationally renowned research team is striving to find new advances in prevention, detection, and treatment.