GHP November 2016

14 | ghp November 2016 Health & Social Care Cancer Moonshot and the Paediatric Consortium: Putting the Pieces Together At Phoenix Children’s in Phoenix, Ariz., we are working to change this dynamic and transform cancer care for children. In fact, we have made an institutional commitment to be at the forefront of eradicating paediatric cancer both at home and abroad. To that end, our organization developed a joint venture with renowned doctor and health care entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, who is a leader in the Moonshot mission. Earlier this year, he named Phoenix Children’s the lead institution for the Cancer Moonshot 2020 Paediatrics Consortium. Phoenix Children’s joins nine world-class children’s hospitals from across the U.S. in a shared mission to advance bench-to-bedside translation of genomic technology to prevent, treat and manage paediatric diseases, first in cancer and then in other conditions. The founding members of this alliance are working to adopt the approach of the larger Moonshot 2020 effort by expanding knowledge sharing, increasing collaboration and driving synergy and effective integration among health care, medical, academic and scientific communities. Our partners include: • Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago / North-western, Ill. • Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Ga. • Children’s Hospital of Orange County, CA • Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Centre, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Calif., Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Pa. • Duke Department of Paediatrics – Duke University School of Medicine, N.C. • Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Centre, Mass. • Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, Utah • Sanford Health, S.D. Cancer’s chokehold on Americans’ health is overwhelming: according to the National Cancer Institute, nearly 40 percent of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetime. Statistics of paediatric cancer are especially grim. In 2016 alone, 10,380 U.S. children under the age of 15 will be diagnosed with the disease. Cure rates for some paediatric cancers remain below 50 percent, and survivors often experience serious or even life- threatening side effects from the toxic protocols used to treat cancer today. But Cancer Moonshot offers new hope. Leaders in health care, research, education and business are joining an expanding coalition of difference-makers to fundamentally transform the way cancer is treated. Moonshot’s ultimate goal is to transform cancer care as we know it by initiating randomized Phase II trials in 20 tumour types for 20,000 patients at all stages of disease within the next three years, ultimately developing an effective vaccine-based immunotherapy for cancer by 2020. At the heart of the initiative is the role of precision medicine in fighting cancer. In 2015, Vice President Joe Biden declared, “I believe that we need a moon shot in this country to cure cancer,” a historical nod to President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1962 declaration to put a man on the moon. In September, Biden reiterated his call for action to fast-track the nation’s most comprehensive cancer collaborative initiative aimed at accelerating genomics and im- munotherapy as the next-generation standard of care for cancer patients. “There is a lack of coordination among efforts, a failure to share information both rapidly and effectively, and an anti- quated culture of research and funding,” he said.