First Lady Jill Biden tours Seattle’s Fred Hutch campus, discusses Cancer Moonshot

Good after­noon, hap­py autumn, and wel­come to our con­tin­u­ing cov­er­age of First Lady Jill Biden’s Sep­tem­ber 2023 vis­it to Seattle.

The NPI team is here at the Fred Hutchin­son Can­cer Research Cen­ter, where Dr. Biden just com­plet­ed a cam­pus tour and spoke to reporters about the Biden-Har­ris admin­is­tra­tion’s Can­cer Moon­shot, an ini­tia­tive which holds per­son­al sig­nif­i­cance for them giv­en their late son Beau’s bat­tle with cancer.

“Accel­er­at­ing the fight against can­cer is a core com­po­nent of the President’s Uni­ty Agen­da, a set of pri­or­i­ties that Amer­i­cans from every walk of life can sup­port,” the White House says. (Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate read­ers may recall that the Pres­i­dent empha­sized the Uni­ty Agen­da in his last State of the Union address.)

“Since the start of the Admin­is­tra­tion, the First Lady has par­tic­i­pat­ed in more than forty Can­cer Moon­shot engage­ments and has vis­it­ed six­teen cities in almost a dozen states. This includes a vis­it to the Sylvester Com­pre­hen­sive Can­cer Cen­ter in Broward Coun­ty, Flori­da last Octo­ber to high­light breast can­cer survivorship.”

The First Lady’s office not­ed in an advance press brief­ing for reporters that Dr. Biden’s advo­ca­cy for can­cer edu­ca­tion and pre­ven­tion began in 1993, when four of her friends were diag­nosed with breast cancer.

Fol­low­ing that year, she launched the Biden Breast Health Ini­tia­tive to edu­cate Delaware high school girls about the impor­tance of can­cer prevention.

Nat­u­ral­ly, her advo­ca­cy and enthu­si­asm for defeat­ing can­cer con­tin­ues today.

The First Lady’s vis­it to Fred Hutch began with a tour of the lab­o­ra­to­ry of Dr. Cyrus Gha­jar. Dr. Gha­jar and a few mem­bers of his research team briefed Dr. Biden on their work. Their research focus­es on metasta­t­ic breast can­cer among breast can­cer sur­vivors and is sup­port­ed with a Depart­ment of Defense grant.

The First Lady was accom­pa­nied on the tour by sev­er­al guests: King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine, Dr. Thomas Lynch, Pres­i­dent and Direc­tor of Fred Hutch, and Leigh Mor­gan, Chair of the Board of Direc­tors of Fred Hutch.

Accord­ing to pool reporter Elise Taka­hama, Biden looked through a micro­scope to see bone mar­row sam­ples from breast can­cer patients, and spoke with lab researchers about how they use var­i­ous mark­ers to pro­file patients’ cells.

Lat­er, Dr. Biden spoke with a group of Fred Hutch sci­en­tists, and a breast can­cer sur­vivor, about next steps in pedi­atric oncol­o­gy, can­cer sur­vivor­ship and decreas­ing the finan­cial bur­den of care.

Dr. Biden agreed that pre­ven­tion is key and that after the rate of can­cer screen­ings fell dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, “We’ve got to catch up.”

Lynch and Biden then joined a Fred Hutch team for a lis­ten­ing ses­sion which was attend­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of many media orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing NPI.

Par­tic­i­pants included:

• Dr. Scott Bak­er, Direc­tor of the Fred Hutch Sur­vivor­ship Program
• Dr. Nan­cy David­son, Fred Hutch’s Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent of Clin­i­cal Affairs
• Leah Mar­coe, Breast Can­cer Survivor
• Dr. Veena Shankaran, Co-Direc­tor of the Hutchin­son Insti­tute for Can­cer Out­comes Research
• Dr. Rachel Yung, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor in the Clin­i­cal Research Division
• Dr. Dou­glas Hawkins, Chair of the Children’s Oncol­o­gy Group (COG) and Clin­i­cian at Seat­tle Children’s

Biden offered intro­duc­to­ry remarks from the podi­um before join­ing the Fred Hutch team in a set of easy chairs for a discussion.

“Of all the things can­cer steals from us, time is the cru­elest. We can’t afford to wait anoth­er minute for bet­ter solu­tions, bet­ter treat­ments, bet­ter cures,” Biden told the Fred Hutch team and the assem­bled media representatives.

“That’s why my hus­band, Pres­i­dent Biden, and I reignit­ed the Biden Can­cer Moon­shot – our White House ini­tia­tive to build a world where can­cer is not a death sen­tence. Where we stop can­cer before it starts. Where we catch it ear­ly and help peo­ple live longer, health­i­er, hap­pi­er lives. Where we invest in inno­v­a­tive research and help patients and their fam­i­lies nav­i­gate this journey.”

“For sur­vivors, that jour­ney doesn’t end when they are declared “can­cer free.” Side effects from treat­ment and the con­stant fear of that next doctor’s appoint­ment linger through remis­sion. But with research and the right care for sur­vivors, we can mit­i­gate those side effects and help ease those fears.”

“That’s what’s hap­pen­ing here at Fred Hutch, where researchers are work­ing to pre­vent breast can­cer from com­ing back and metas­ta­siz­ing in sur­vivors, and where clin­i­cians are sup­port­ing sur­vivors with qual­i­ty care that’s designed to meet their unique needs,” the First Lady emphasized.

This post will be updated.