M.D. Anderson Announces New Research Push on 8 Cancers

September 21, 2012

Today M.D. Anderson launched a new effort to accelerate the fight against eight types of cancer. It's called the "Moon Shots Program" and takes its inspiration from the national push to reach the moon in the 1960s. The cancer hospital will re-organize research teams around new technologies and push for discoveries that actually reduce patient deaths.

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M.D. Anderson President Ron Depinho says that too often, cancer research is focused on studying a narrow problem and then publishing a paper.

“Studying is not enough. Kennedy did not say we’re going to study as to how to go to the moon. He said we’re going to go to the moon. So we are going to have a very goal-oriented mentality, an execution mentality that allows us to take the existing knowledge, the technology today to really, truly make cancer history.”

Depinho says the program could cost three billion over a decade, much of that from grants and philanthropists. He says the only measure of success will be a drop in mortality from the eight targeted cancers.

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