Here is how the USA plans to tackle cancer and other deadly diseases

Here are the strategies the USA will use to combat cancer and other dangerous diseases.

The US is known to have a lower life expectancy than the developed world, which averages 72. The leading cause of death in the US is heart disease and cancer. 

To tackle cancer, US president Joe Biden has launched an ambitious strategy. At a policy meeting in Boston, Biden launched a new agency called the Advanced Research Projects Agencies for Health, or ARPA-H. 

Tumor disease is a pretty close issue for Biden as he lost his adult son, Beau Biden to a brain tumor in 2015. 

Biden states “ARPA-H will have a singular purpose, to drive breakthroughs to prevent, detect, and treat diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and other diseases and enable us to live healthier lives.”

This agency is modeled after DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is a part of the Defense Department of the USA. The DARPA is responsible for the creation of many breakthrough projects such as the internet and GPS. 

Biden talked about the many possibilities through which tumors could be prevented, which included vaccines similar to those of HPV, molecular zip codes that could precisely transport medications and gene therapy to the appropriate organs, and quick blood tests identifying tumors at early stages and injections rather than chemotherapy procedures. 

Biden asserted that the US must produce advanced biotechnologies here, which is why he signed an executive order directing the federal government to ensure that biotechnologies developed in the US are produced in the US, whether they are used to treat cancer or for anything else, such as next-generation fuels and materials.

It is hoped that this new initiative will spearhead a new era in the field of medical sciences.

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