30 April 2021: Letter to President Biden

30 April 2021

Dear President Biden,

Congratulations on your proposal to "end cancer as we know it" and your efforts to increase funding for basic research.

What constitutes a cure for cancer, or ending cancer as we know it? I have developed a strategic plan with the goal of reducing annual US cancer deaths from 600,000 currently to 100,000 by 2030, see http://www.natpernick.com/StrategicPlanCuringCancer.html. To be successful, we need to improve and implement this or a similar strategic plan, which identifies research, clinical and prevention activities that need to be taken and coordinated.

Ending cancer is not analogous to landing on the moon. We are not searching solely for a "silver bullet" or other technological innovation. Instead, we need to change our approach to cancer treatment and focus on (a) attacking tumor networks, not mutations; (b) altering multiple aspects of the tumor microenvironment; (c) identifying, targeting and monitoring systemic tumor networks relating to chronic inflammation, immune system dysfunction and other tumor nurturing effects, and (d) strengthening our cancer prevention programs through promotion of the American Code Against Cancer, see http://www.natpernick.com/AmericanCodeAgainstCancer.html or similar efforts.

We need combinations of combinations of treatment and clinical trials for almost all cancer patients, strategies that led to cures for childhood leukemia, testicular cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma.

I am currently pursuing these efforts, and although I am in contact with pathologists worldwide through my website, PathologyOutlines.com, I am only an individual pathologist. It would be useful to have a partner in the federal government who could identify collaborators in federal agencies or elsewhere to more fully develop and implement this strategic plan.

Please review and advise.