The legacy of Richard Nixon’s “war on cancer” is still very much alive today.
During his presidency, Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971, which established the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and government funding for cancer research has risen nowadays to around $1.5 billion.
Since 1971, events have been created to gather leaders in cancer care to help advance what inspired Nixon’s Cancer Act, including an annual two-day conference at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda.
The fourth annual Nixon National Cancer Conference on Jan. 15-16 brought together 400 guests who discussed a wide variety of subjects, from COVID-19 causing a decline in public trust in healthcare entities to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to treat cancer. City of Hope sponsored the event for the third year in a row.
The American Cancer Society estimates there will be more than two million new cancer cases, which would equate to 5,400 patients every single day, showing that the challenge ahead of researchers “is clear,” according to City of Hope Orange County President Annette Walker.
“Whether the cause of this unwelcome milestone is the aging population, changes in lifestyle, the environment or a multitude of issues, our mission is clear: to end the cancer burden,” Walker said at the event.
Panel Highlights
The second day of the conference featured four panels focused on different topics related to cancer care.
There was also a luncheon keynote speech delivered over video by Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky’s second congressional district. Guthrie gave updates on key pieces of upcoming legislation, including the recently passed Medicaid Value Based Payments for Patients Act that will make high-cost therapies and cures for rare diseases available without having to raise taxes or cut other state programs.
Highlights of the panel discussions include:
• The patients’ perspective and ways that doctors and other healthcare providers can help them navigate their treatment journey.
• The role of AI in advancing cancer research and treatment, such as the utilization of large-language models (LLMs) to streamline administrative work. Also addressed what the potential regulatory environment and standard operating procedures should be for using AI.
• The issue of increasing distrust in health institutions that was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel sought to find the root cause of this distrust and why it has increased over the decades.
ÂThis panel served as a follow up to the previous panel, posing solutions on how new forms of media can help reestablish the sense of broken trust between medical providers and the public.
Prominent Attendees
Other sponsors of the event include University of California, Irvine Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Kaiser Permanente and Children’s Hospital of Orange County Hyundai Cancer Institute.
In attendance were prominent cancer experts in Orange County such as Dr. Edward Kim, physician-in-chief at City of Hope Orange County, Dr. Richard Van Etten,
director of UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Dr. Hazem Chehabi, president, medical director and nuclear medicine physician at Newport Diagnostic Center.
Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, the 17th director of the National Institutes of Health, was presented with the Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach Award, named after the former director of the NCI and the Food and Drug Administration.
Bertagnolli was appointed to the head of the NIH in 2023 by President Joe Biden after leading the NCI, becoming the first surgeon and second woman to hold the position.
Last year wasn’t the greatest year in terms of funding for NIH, according to Bertagnolli.
“There were a lot of programs that had to be cut (last) year,” she said. “Who gets hurt when that happens? It’s the next generation, and I was constantly aware of the need to preserve funding for young investigators’ enthusiasm among young people to want to enter the very challenging field of biomedical research.”
