The President and First Lady reignited the White House Cancer Moonshot to mobilize efforts to achieve clear goals: prevent more than 4 million cancer deaths in the United States by 2047, and improve the experience of people who are touched by cancer. Although these goals are focused on ending cancer as we know it for Americans, the Cancer Moonshot’s mission extends beyond the United States, as lower- and middle-income countries disproportionately experience the majority of cancer deaths worldwide. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to leading international collaboration to expand equitable access to cancer prevention, screening, treatment, and care for people around the world. 

For many years, the United States has partnered with India to meet shared health challenges. Despite concrete progress on improving well-being, noncommunicable diseases, including cancer, account for about 63 percent of all deaths in India. And cancer cases are estimated to increase by nearly 13 percent in 2025, compared to 2020. 

Yesterday, President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reaffirmed the strong relationship between the United States and India by announcing new commitments to accelerate the fight against cancer, including: 

  • Developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital pathology platform that will be utilized for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction of therapeutic benefit, as well as AI-based automated radiotherapy treatment for cancers of the cervix, head, and neck.
  • Convening a U.S.-India Cancer Dialogue that will bring together government officials, as well as public and private sector experts, to identify new areas of collaboration around data sharing, synthetic biology, and the advancement of new technologies for prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer. 

Ending cancer as we know it – at home and across the globe – requires the commitment of companies, foundations, and institutions able to contribute new actions and collaborations. 

Today, the Cancer Moonshot is announcing that the private sector is stepping up with the following new actions:

Improving Access to Cancer Screening and Prevention

  • Dana Faber Cancer Institute is joining with Narottam Sekhsaria Foundation, a Mumbai-based nonprofit, to test the impact of adapted tobacco cessation interventions.With 275 million users of smoked and smokeless tobacco, cessation efforts are critical for addressing tobacco-related cancers and diseases in India. This partnership is advancing interventions that can be used in low-resource settings in Mumbai.
  • Bayer and the National Cancer Institute of India-All India Institute of Medical Sciences are partnering to improve access to early cancer screening. This collaboration is bringing cancer screening to people with a high risk of cancer in underserved rural and urban communities in India.  The goal is to detect cancer in its early stages and ensure that patients receive timely treatment and care, and will include focus on prostate, head, neck, and oral cancers.
  • Jhpiego, in partnership with Roche Group, is initiating a project in Uttar Pradesh focused on integrated screening for breast and cervical cancer. This new action includes the introduction of HPV DNA testing to demonstrate implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Cervical Cancer Elimination strategy. The project takes a women-centered approach to improve cancer awareness—by integrating secondary prevention of cervical cancer and breast cancer screening at the primary health care level and linking to facilities to ease additional diagnosis and management steps.

Increasing Capacity for Cancer Research, Infrastructure, and Training

  • Cures Within Reach is launching a series of new grants to increase clinical drug repurposing trials and capacity. Through its Repurposing Grants for the Rest of the World (ReGRoW) initiative, which provides grants to researchers in low- and lower-middle income countries for clinical repurposing trials, Cures Within Reach is expanding funded trials in India to include oncology trials. Cures Within Reach will work with other nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations to expand capacity for clinical research in India and identify repurposed therapies for patients with unmet medical needs.
  • The National Brain Tumor Society, Duke University, Open Health Systems Laboratories, Bayer, and others are establishing a public-private collaboration focused on pediatric cancer. This network aims to partner selected medical centers in urban and rural communities in India with centers in the United States through a digital platform using technology licensed from the National Institutes of Health. The digital platform is intended to enable bilateral exchange of information between centers in India and U.S. institutions on multidisciplinary care of patients, shared decision-making on individual treatment plans, as well as best practices in patient care in both countries. 
  • The Children’s Oncology Group is launching its first pediatric clinical trial in collaboration with Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. This new collaboration offers the unprecedented opportunity for expanded clinical collaboration to a hospital that serves approximately 2,500 new pediatric cancer cases every year. 

Building Cancer Care Workforce and Delivery

  • Johnson & Johnson Medtech India (JJMI) is announcing a partnership to provide solutions for education in cancer care delivery. As part of Johnson & Johnson Medical Device Companies, JJMI is partnering with Karkinos Healthcare, an end-to-end oncology-focused technology platform, to co-create comprehensive solutions to improve the cancer care workforce. This partnership will integrate JJMI’s expertise in surgical training and Karkinos’ technology platform for informed decision-making on individual treatment plans, and builds on a partnership with Tata Memorial Hospital to scale up surgical training.

Increasing Cancer Awareness and Education to Empower People

  • Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) is expanding its cervical cancer education and awareness campaign in South Asia, including in India. BD South Asia is expanding its cervical cancer education and awareness program among its roughly 1700 employees, with a focus on HPV vaccination for the prevention of cervical, head, neck and others cancers, and timely screening for employees and their family members. The awareness campaign will comprehensively include both health care providers and eligible women, their families and the community where they work and live.

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