Vice President Joe Biden Continues His Fight for Cancer Patients

Every day this year, cancer will take the life of approximately 1,600 Americans. This is in addition to the more than 4,600 new cancer cases diagnosed on a daily basis. California, Florida, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania will see the highest numbers in each of these categories. Vice President Joe Biden recently hosted a summit to bring doctors, researchers and other caregivers together to discuss what actions need to be taken to help treat and cure cancer.

The Vice President lost his son Beau Biden last year at the age of 46 to brain cancer. In January, he was named head of a “moonshot” initiative to find a cure for cancer. At the one-day summit at Howard University, Biden called on drug companies to stop raising prices on crucial cancer medications and to remove many of the obstacles cancer patients have to overcome in order to receive the medication at all.

Biden also noted that a lack of cooperation in the medical and scientific communities is hindering progress. He acknowledged there is competition in every aspect of scientific research and studies, but not collaborating or sharing information when it comes to cancer does more harm than good. The Vice President even proposed taking away federal funding from medical institutions that do not publically disclose the results of their studies in the amount of time required by the government.

A new partnership with IBM was also announced at the summit. The company is lending their innovative Watson technology to the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) in an effort to provide pin-point treatment plans for over 10,000 veterans diagnosed with cancer. The VA is the largest medical provider in the country and treats 3.5 percent of all the cancer patients in the nation.

Vice President Biden would also like more work to be done on developing vaccines for certain types of cancer, noting the success of the HPV vaccine in preventing cervical cancer. He says the key is finding the specific markers in the blood that identify that type cancer and then block them from occurring. Biden believes experimental treatments and clinical trials should be available to more people, and oncologists should be able to easily access this information so they can get their patients involved if they qualify.

The most commonly diagnosed cancers this years are expected to be breast cancer, lung/bronchus cancer, prostate cancer and colon/rectum cancer. Early detection is key with any form of cancer. A failure to diagnose cancer or a misdiagnosis can be physically, emotionally, and financially costly. If you are a victim of medical malpractice in regards to any type of cancer, you need an attorney who will stand up for you to fight for the compensation you deserve. Do not hesitate in calling the experienced and compassionate attorneys at Finz & Finz, P.C., today.