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> http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2016/04/13/vp-joe-biden-bring-cancer-moonshot-vatican/82990860/ <http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2016/04/13/vp-joe-biden-bring-cancer-moonshot-vatican/82990860/>
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> Biden to take cancer 'moonshot' to Vatican
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> Vice President Joe Biden is bringing his "moonshot" to cure cancer to the Vatican.
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> Biden will travel to Vatican City on April 28 for an international conference on breakthroughs in regenerative medicine. The vice president's office on Wednesday said he'll deliver a speech about his efforts to accelerate cancer research.
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> The Pontifical Council for Culture and the Stem for Life Foundation are hosting the conference, bringing together doctors, researchers, patients and bioethicists.
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> Pope Francis plans to attend part of the conference. It's unclear whether Biden will meet privately with the pope. Biden, a Roman Catholic, has met with the pope on other occasions, including during the pontiff's visit for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in the fall </story/news/local/2015/09/24/delawareans-see-popes-washington-address/72742246/>.
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> The visit comes as Biden mounts a final-year push to double the rate of progress toward a cancer cure. The Obama administration has asked Congress for $1 billion.
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> Biden's oldest son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, died May 30 following a two-year battle with brain cancer. About 1,000 people attended his funeral in Wilmington, including numerous national and international political figures, and thousands more attended viewings at Legislative Hall in Dover and at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.
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> The death weighed heavily on the Biden family and Joe Biden's decision this summer and fall about whether to campaign for president. He announced that he would not seek the nomination in October during a speech in the Rose Garden and said cancer research would become his new focus.
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> "There are so many breakthroughs just on the horizon in science and medicine, the things that are just about to happen, and we can make them real, with an absolute national commitment to end cancer as we know it today," Joe Biden said.
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> President Barack Obama during his State of the Union address also pointed to effort, saying "for the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the families that we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all."
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> Obama is requesting $755 million in addition to the $195 million in new cancer funding Congress approved in its budget deal late last year.
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> The vice president launched the initiative in January at Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Penn is the alma mater of Beau Biden. Since then, the vice president has visited several research institutions to discuss the cancer fight.
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> By 2025, an estimated 2.1 million people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer each year, a 31% increase from 2012 #CancerMoonshot <https://twitter.com/hashtag/CancerMoonshot?src=hash>— Dr. Doug Lowy (‎@NCIDrDoug) 4:15 PM - 1 Feb 2016 <https://twitter.com/NCIDrDoug/status/694267779457912832>
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> Earlier this month, a blue-ribbon panel of 27 cancer experts and patient advocates were named to a panel that will be making recommendations by August. The effort is being lead by Greg Simon, a cancer survivor.
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> "We're going to try to figure out what we can achieve in 10 years, and then how to achieve it in five, literally, and not just through money," Simon told the Washington Post in March when he was named Cancer Moonshot Task Force executive director.
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> An estimated 590,000 Americans die of cancer <http://www.acscan.org/content/media-center/vice-president-biden-calls-for-an-end-to-cancer/>annually and Delaware's cancer rate is among the highest in the U.S.
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> It also was announced Tuesday </story/news/local/2016/04/12/biden-give-delaware-state-commencement-address/82933072/> that Biden will be speaking at the May 7 Delaware State University commencement ceremony.
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Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Advisors, LLC
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Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com <x-msg://59/eschwerin@obblaw.com>
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