personal mission for joe biden. it s also something that they know has impact on millions and millions and millions of americans and i just want to add one other thing. you heard dr. emanuel talking about the cost of cancer drugs. there s a huge equity component to this as well. not just the fact that whether or not you can afford a drug that might save your life bears greatly on whether or not you might be able to survive a cancer, but also as we know, there are some cancers that black people and black women are more likely to have bad yooutcos from and finding out more about that, preventing that from happening, that s a piece of this. so for the white house, this issue, it has so many different impacts beyond just the personal. it s about equity. it s also about saving lives frankly on something that s killing hundreds of thousands of people every single year. and john, the president, you know, who is such a natural
since congress passed and president nixon signed into law the national cancer act and declared war on cancer. we learned cancer is not a single disease. there are over 200 as you all know, different types of cancer. caused by different genetic mutations in our cells. we discovered new medicines, therapies, early detection, prevention measures that extend lives and save lives. in the first 25 year, the death rate was largely unchanged then things began to change. the progress over the last 25 year, the death rate has fallen by more than 25%. but here s the deal. despite the progress of lives extended and lives saved, cancer s still the number two cause of death in american.
second only to heart disease. in the last two years of covid-19 pandemic, has taken, the pandemic s taken more than 800,000 american lives. but that same period of time, cancer s claimed 1.2 million american lives. year in and year out. for too many patients and their families, diagnosed with cancer instead of hope, there s also bewilderment. remember, doc, you telling the family that we had questions and you were available because it s a hard road to understand and traverse. the feeling of being on your own, a static adrift in a sea of patients, frustrated that hospitals and doctors can t only share your medical records or
available the treatment which is currently available in the uk can be delivered, has more chance of being successfuh delivered, has more chance of being successfuh i delivered, has more chance of being successful. i heard the speaker talking successful. i heard the speaker talking about using innovation and technology and investing in ways in which technology and investing in ways in which we technology and investing in ways in which we can improve diagnostics, so we can which we can improve diagnostics, so we can identify cancers more easily and readily we can identify cancers more easily and readily before they become an issue and readily before they become an issue of and readily before they become an issue of stage three, stage four. on face value. issue of stage three, stage four. on face value, what the government is announcing face value, what the government is announcing is absolutely the right thing announcing is absolutely the right thing to announcing
i remember when we were going through this in the moon shot and my saying that i was told, well, patients don t want to share their data. they all want to share their data. sometimes y all don t want to share what you know. and for each for each of the ways we know cancer today, we know we can change its trajectory. for example, to prevent cancer, scientists are exploring if the new mrna vaccine technology that brought us safe and effective covid-19 vaccines could also be used to stop cancer cells when they first arrived. get them then. to target the right treatments to the right patients. we re learning more about how to use genetics. immune response and other