The connections forged by the Cancer Moonshot will outlive the Obama administration, Greg Simon, executive director of the Cancer Moonshot Task Force, told a group of VA, nonprofit, and health care industry experts at the Launch Pad: Pathways to Cancer Innovation summit last month in Washington, DC. The event, cosponsored by the VA and the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), was a forum for discussing possible new approaches to oncology care and touting progress that has already occurred at the VA.
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At the event, the VA and PCF also signed an agreement for a $50 million Precision Oncology Program that will expand prostate cancer clinical research among veterans and develop new treatment options and cures for prostate cancer patients.
Speakers at the summit included VA Secretary Robert McDonald VA Undersecretary of Health David J. Shulkin, MD; and Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Policy and Services Jennifer S. Lee, MD. According to Dr. Shulkin, the Million Veteran Program (MVP) has already surpassed 520,000 enrollees and has contracted with the U.S. Department of Energy to use its supercomputers to speed analysis and computation. In 2016, the VA managed 181,000 prostate cancer cases, and 26,000 deaths are projected. According to Shulkin, the VA also has developed the Center for Compassionate Innovation to enhance the health of veterans and their well-being by offering emerging therapies that are safe and ethical, particularly after traditional treatments have been unsuccessful.
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At the meeting, a number of health care providers also discussed ongoing oncology programs that the VA hopes to expand. Drew Moghanaki, MD, MPH, director of clinical radiation oncology research at Hunter Holmes McGuire VAMC in Richmond, Virginia, discussed efforts to make radiation oncology more precise for patients with lung cancer. Bruce Montgomery, MD, of the VA Puget Sound in Seattle, Washington, presented on the germline DNA testing of veterans with advanced prostate cancer, and Durham VAMC’s Neil Spector, MD, provided an update on using the Precision Oncology Program for more targeted therapies. Jennifer MacDonald, MD, VA’s director of clinical innovations and education, discussed the pilot and growth of virtual tumor boards to speed diagnosis and treatment to rural veterans with suspected cancers. The virtual tumor board was a recent example of a program developed through the Diffusion of Best Practices initiative spearheaded by Shereef Elnahal, MD, across the VA.
“Fighting and treating cancer among our veterans is a team effort, which is why this Launch Pad event and this partnership are so important,” Secretary McDonald told the group. “To effectively serve our veterans and to keep VA on the cutting edge of medical research, we need government, corporate, and nonprofit organizations working together. We are truly grateful to the Prostate Cancer Foundation for this important show of support. Our work together will save veterans’ lives.”
