>> president biden and vice president harris delivered remarks during the 70th annual national prayer breakfast. they joined the co-chairs of the event new york democratic senator gilly brabd and south dakota republican senator rounds along with human rights activist brian stevenson. watch tonight at 9 p.m. eastern on c-span. online at c-span.org, or watch full coverage on our new video a. c-span now. . president biden himself announced it yesterday at the white house. you can still find it on our website, c-span.org, or the app, c-span now. here is president biden from yesterday talking about the details of the renewed moonshot. [video clip] question -- quick the death rate

in half in the next 25 years by at least percent. it and turn more cancer death sentences into something that people can live with, create a more supportive experience for patients and families. ending cancer as we know it. here is what we are fighting and how we know what cancer looks like today. a disease where we often diagnose it too late. have too few effective ways to prevent it. stark inequities based on factors still persist. and we know too little about why treatments work in some patients and the exact same treatment doesn't work in another. where we still lack strategies

to develop treatments for some cancers. where we do not do enough to help patients and their families navigate through the process. we don't learn enough from patient experiences or their data. in fact we first started this work, one of the first things we did was make sure that doctors and researchers work together, share information, allow patients to share their data with other doctors and researchers to help others. but there is so much more to do. we were going through this and i was told patients don't want to share their data. they all want to share their data. sometimes you all don't want to share what you know.

for each of the ways that we know cancer today, we know we can change its trajectory. for example, to prevent it, scientists are exploring if the new mrna vaccine technology that brought us safe and effective covid-19 vaccines could be used in some cells when they fail and when they first arrive. get them then. target the right treatments to the right patients. we are learning more about genetics, immune response and other factors to tell which combinations of treatments are likely to work best for a particular individual. to address inequities we can target prevention detection and treatment effort so that all americans, urban, rural, or tribal communities, have equal access to diagnosis, therapeutics, and clinical trials. there is so much more we can do. host: some of the details

yesterday from the presidential announcement on the renewed moonshot. you will remember that this was an initiative he took as vice president of the united states after the loss of his son, beau. you can take a look at this with us, (202) 748-8000 for you cancer survivors in the audience. (202) 748-8001 if you lost a loved one. caregivers, it's (202) 748-8002. all others, (202) 748-8003. joining us now by zoom is dr. eat at mitchell, a member of the presidential cancer panel and the thomas jefferson university medical college and oncology department. dr. mitchell, thanks for your time this morning. guest: thank you for the opportunity. host: can you tell us a bit about the presidential cancer panel? what is it? guest: the panel is a part of the 1971 national cancer act

signed by former president nixon . we have just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the national cancer act and the president's cancer panel consists of three independent members that give advice to the president based on the current cancer issues in the country and we are so proud to be a part of that presidential cancer panel. host: we saw the president undergo this effort with his initial moonshot. what changes as far as what he's doing now but the goals he has established as a part of the new moonshot? guest: it's a realignment of the previous moonshot. the previous moonshot consisted mainly of research efforts.

this realignment or reignition of the moonshot consists of multiple areas. including research, but including the fact that we can all participate in this program. so, therefore increasing screening, increasing participation. and he indicated that he and the first lady, dr. jill biden, indicated that we all can participate in this. patients, caregivers, physicians, clinicians. but other members of the health care team so that everybody is involved and therefore we are all working together to further the effort.

certainly the biden family has been affected by cancer, but so have many other americans been affected by cancer. and therefore, including everyone, making sure that we have cancer screening as a part of this. because with cancer screening, we can frequently find cancers earlier so that there are better outcomes from treatment and diagnostic interventions, therefore decreasing the suffering from more individuals presenting with late stage cancer where the patient may not feel well, may have suffered many of the consequences and side effects of cancer, and therefore is less likely to respond to interventions.

finding cancers early is a great part of this initiative. host: it's the idea of how much money should be tied to this effort. we saw congress give $2 billion to the previous moonshot. there is still money left in that. what has to be considered as far as a dollar figure? guest: he did not give a dollar figure but the national cancer institute members were there for planning and congressional members were a part of the meeting yesterday, understanding that additional resources will be needed and will need to be approved for this. but there were no specific dollar figures described. but that is to come as a part of the program and a part of the

representation of the presidential cancer panel. host: when it comes to the research being done on reducing cancers, we have seen probably years of research on that. what could be considered as new research that you talked about that could further the presidential goal on this? guest: one of the new areas involves matching the tumor, the genomic profile, with new drugs so that we can adequately prevent the therapeutic interventions that are likely to give the patient a good response. so, that is one area of research. the next is defining more therapeutic interventions that might be helpful for treating cancer. those are ongoing.

and the report from the cancer panel describes four critical goals and related recommendations to ensure the benefits of cancer screening for all populations. another area that is so important is access to care and making sure that everyone has access to the interventions that are present. better screening. more participation in the screening process for cancer. the initiatives that the panel recommends involved improving communications so that health care systems, physicians, and others have better ways of communicating information. not only regarding new efforts,

but also for the patient's. facilitate equitable access. this will provide an increased funding for community oriented outreach and support so that there is robust engagement of community health workers and others to increase the access to screening for individuals. the next is strengthen workforce collaborations. if we can have all centers and members of the health care team supporting cancer screening and expanding access to the genomic and genetic access, that's another improvement. the next is to create effective health information technology to make systems work better together for the providers and for patients by creating and

utilizing computable guidelines and clinical decision-making. host: do you know if any part of the presidential plan will include anything about doing the costs of drugs related to cancer? particularly if they are prohibitive for some people who are diagnosed with it? guest: costs is very important and certainly the new era punic sarver expensive. in working with insurance companies to provide the access to care, that's a part of what we do and we have had members from the insurance companies involved and therefore creating processes that will allow for better coverage of care and better access to the interventions that are

available. that's a part of the whole program. host: dr. mitchell is a clinical professor at thomas jefferson university medical college in the oncology department. thank you for your time and perspective. guest: thank you for the opportunity and we hope that everyone will support the president's new cancer moonshot. host: thank you, doctor. that in mind, if you want to call in and give your perspective on this new research moonshot, (202) 748-8000 for cancer survivors in the audience. if you lost a loved one to cancer, (202) 748-8001. for caregivers in the audience, (202) 748-8002. all others can call us at (202) 748-8003. you can use that number to text us your thoughts this morning as

well. we will take those calls starting with lisa in maine. a caregiver. lisa, thank you for holding on. go ahead, you are on. caller: i was a caregiver of my mother who we lost to pancreatic, -- pancreatic cancer seven years ago and it was probably one of the hardest things i had ever gone through. there's not enough research for pancreatic cancer. it's a 10% survival rate. you know, you talk about the red cross, the american cancer society and how much they are doing research on these cancers, but they don't stress enough about pancreatic cancer. maybe i'm biased about it, but it's really tough to see someone

suffer like that. my mother was three months without chemo, six months of chemo. did three rounds and passed away . it was horrible. they need more research. president biden, how does he know about what needs to be done ? he's not a doctor. he probably just hears it from the media or other doctors. host: he lost a son to cancer. caller: ok, what i didn't know that, i apologize. host: let's go to tom in south carolina. go ahead. caller: good morning, sir. i wanted to just mention, i'm a cancer survivor three times. i had surgery all three times. one surgery was 11 hours and 18 minutes in duration. from what i gather from what biden was saying on the cliff that you played just a little

while ago, he's trying to divert the attention to the doctors. i can tell you, sir, the doctors that treat cancer patients are some of the most dedicated people i have ever seen and i am so upset with biden that he would dare, would dare divert this to the doctors that misdiagnose cancers or whatever. host: when you say he's diverting this to doctors, what do you mean? caller: that's what i'm saying in his comments, that's what i gathered from his comments. host: how did you gather that? caller: hello? host: i'm curious to find out how you gather that from his comments. caller: he made the comment that doctors misdiagnose different kinds of cancers.

doctors cannot misdiagnose what they don't know. i have a dear friend who had gynecological cancer. she should have died from it. but her doctor did not misdiagnose that, thank god. i think biden needs to be careful about what he says. host: ok. that's tom in south carolina, part of this renewed moonshot initiative, as it's called, to reduce the death rate from cancer over the next 25 years. you heard our guests on the top of the show talk about increasing the access to cancer screenings as being a part of that, improving the experience for people living with cancer and their families as well. it would also establish a white house moonshot cancer coordinator position within the office of the president and form the white house cancer cabinet, bringing together officials from

multiple agencies. you can find the full presentation on our website, c-span.org or the c-span now app. from your perspective when it comes to the topic, but do you think about this new effort from the white house? you can call and let us know. (202) 748-8000 for survivors. (202) 748-8001 if you lost a loved one. (202) 748-8002 if you are a caregiver. all others, (202) 748-8003. ronald, texas, hello. ronald in beetle, texas? one more time for ronald. let's go to fran in jacksonville, florida, cancer survivor. good morning. caller: yes, i am. i'm a breast cancer survivor and was diagnosed in 2014 and i want to put a plug in for obamacare.

i didn't have insurance for five years and without insurance, it was in 2014 that i was allowed to get obamacare. signed up for that and i went on to have a regular mammogram and that's when the cancer was found and obamacare saved my life. so, i wanted to put the plug in there. one other thing, my best friend is going through cancer right now. she was diagnosed in november and she just started her treatments and it's going to be a long road. she has a very rare form of cancer that is a mass that's pressing on mostly all of her internal organs and she has a real fight to go ahead and i just wanted to say that i am all in for this moonshot thing. what my friend is going through is going to be something new and

innovative and hopefully it can save her life. host: you said you had signed up for the affordable care act. before that you had no access to screenings as far as cancer was concerned? caller: actually i was getting a mammogram each year, i was paying out of pocket for it and you know, they were good, but the first bad mammogram i had, thank goodness i had insurance. if i had had one of those bad mammograms a few months before? i would have had to pay, i saw the bills. like $200,000. >> you can see the rest of this segment if you go to our website c-span.org or our video app c-span now. live now to the white house where president biden is speeblging about a --