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Vice President Joe Biden pledged on Tuesday night to work to increase resources for cancer research and improve coordination across the research community as part of his cancer “moonshot” that President Obama endorsed in his State of the Union address. (Scott, 1/12)

President Obama announced during his State of the Union Address that he’s putting Vice President Biden in charge of carrying out the “moonshot” to cure cancer that Biden called for following his son’s death. "Last month, [Biden] worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade," Obama said. "Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all." (Gaudiano, 1/12)

Obama's final State of the Union speech offered little in the way of new policy initiatives, but plenty of upbeat talk about prospects for a strong future. ... On health, he likened the administration's push against cancer to a new "moon shot." "Let's make America the country that cures cancer once and for all," he said. (1/12)

President Obama called Tuesday for a stepped-up war on cancer, but with hundreds, even thousands, of types of cancer and an ever-increasing number of specialized therapies for them, experts say there is no true “moonshot” approach to tackling the nation’s second-leading cause of death. “A single approach to cancer...ain’t going to happen,” said Jose Baselga, president of the American Association for Cancer Research and chief medical officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “Cancer, we’ve learned, is far more complex than we’ve ever imagined. Every single tumor is different.” Yet top cancer specialists agree on several big ideas that might push the boundaries of research and therapy for the 1.7 million people diagnosed each year. (Bernstein, 1/12)

On a typical day, oncologist Dr. Linda Bosserman spends hours poring over lists meant to guide clinicians toward the optimal course of treatment. These "clinical pathways" are based on the cancer's stage and location in the body, and patient-specific factors, like comorbidities. Then, after she and the patient have chosen a plan, Bosserman says she spends hours explaining to payers how and why the choice was made. (Rice, 1/12)