The pandemic has shown us we can end cancer

It's been 50 years since the U.S. declared war on cancer and six since the first cancer moonshot was launched. As City of Hope opens the doors on a new cancer campus, three executives discuss the new facility and offer insights on how the nation can rally the energy from our pandemic response to race to the cancer finish line.

Annette Walker: The City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center and the network of care developed in Orange County are the fulfillment of a vision to bring advanced cancer research and treatments to the heart of a community. This in itself is unique, but City of Hope is also among the first NCI-designated cancer centers to build a second campus in a new region. All the advanced lifesaving resources to address cancer in Orange County, including innovative clinical trials and highly specialized cancer experts, are accessible to local residents.

Dr. Edward Kim: As we see it, if we really want to do something about the one-in-three statistic for cancer incidence in the United States, advanced cancer services must be more accessible. Before we came to this community, up to 20% of residents had to travel outside the region to obtain highly specialized cancer care. Some endured an up to two-hour commute in Los Angeles traffic. That's a highly stressful situation and not conducive to the healing essential for cancer patients. We now have an innovative solution that moves from the traditional academic setting and establishes a new model.

Wendy Austin: I was attracted to City of Hope because of its innovative thinking and plans. As someone who has worked in cancer nursing all her life, that is music to my ears. Cancer is America’s long-standing health crisis, and it demands new solutions.

AW: You are right in calling cancer a healthcare crisis. COVID was a crisis that tragically took about 1,000,000 American lives. It also exposed serious gaps in the healthcare system, showing us that access to care is not always equitable. However, as we come out of the pandemic, there are signs of hope. Among them is that Americans can rally around a healthcare crisis. I have often said I have never been prouder of my field than during the pandemic. Healthcare providers, government authorities, pharmaceutical companies, community leaders, and many more came together to seek rapid solutions. Imagine if we extended that innovative collaboration to America's cancer crisis.

WA: The U.S. healthcare system can be slow to transform. However, we leaned into our abilities to speed innovation in the past two years. Telemedicine is a great example, as this service skyrocketed, especially during the early pandemic period. Healthcare providers pivoted and responded to what their patients wanted: safe and convenient access to care. They adopted and realized care could be just as safe and effective. Now, more patients are keeping their appointments, and that’s essential for their care.

AW: During the pandemic, healthcare also reached far beyond traditional hospital walls and provided much needed testing and vaccines. In Orange County, you could even get a vaccine in the Disneyland parking lot! This out-of-the-box thinking, cooperation among business and government leaders, and our ability to help people equitably access healthcare where they need it are at the foundation of what we are doing at City of Hope.

EK: And, of course, we saw the power of medical research. We were told it would take years to develop a vaccine in the early days of the pandemic, but we were getting shots in healthcare workers within ten months. Scientists, doctors and government agencies worldwide cut red tape and published results as soon as they were available. And, the vaccines used the technology that cancer researchers and biopharma companies have been working with for some time to harness mRNA and other immune-stimulating technologies. So, you see, COVID-19 put cancer research back in the spotlight, and we all saw how important this research is to continue pushing forward.

AW: Doctors, nurses, technicians and researchers showed tremendous focus and courage. All of us— even administrators—learned what we could do in facing down a crisis. As I said, I have never been prouder to work in healthcare. But we can't stop here; we have a cancer crisis that needs this kind of response.

AW: We need to acknowledge that cancer is a healthcare crisis. This is not to minimize the impact of COVID-19. However, cancer is at crisis proportions. In 2021, it was estimated 1.9 million people were diagnosed with cancer in the U.S., and about 600,000 people died. I am certain that almost everyone reading this piece has been personally impacted by cancer.

EK: This is not to say that progress hasn’t been made. In 1953, a cancer diagnosis was so hopeless that a survey of physicians found only 3% informed their patients they had the disease. In the 1970s, a cancer diagnosis was still bleak. That's when the National Cancer Institute was formed and put resources into research. It was a turning point and made a marked difference in cancer outcomes. Now, we're almost at the finish line. That end to cancer is very much in sight if we do the right thing and commit to turning our attention to this crisis.

WA: Don’t stop innovating. We need to invest in centers of cancer innovation. The advances I’ve witnessed in just the past few years have been exponential. Immunotherapy, one of the biggest shifts in our response to cancer, shows great promise. I also believe that prevention is essential. We can drop the cancer rate faster by stopping the disease before it starts through improving health behaviors and recent innovations in preventive screening, diagnosis and therapies.

EK: Keep pushing for research. The number of new treatments that have come out of research is exploding. We believe we will see 30 to 40 new drugs a year that will successfully prolong life and drive down side effects. But even our research protocols must change. For years, unnecessary exclusions have shut out patient groups—the very sick, patients who cannot access transportation for repeat visits, and many seniors, for example. Clinical trial populations must look more like the cancer population and that leads to better science.

AW: We need to be doing more of what we have been doing. Between 1990 and 2020, cancer mortality rates decreased by 31%, and that is just the beginning. President Biden’s Moonshot 2.0 is pushing for an aggressive approach using AI, genomics and other technologies to expand knowledge and uncover more effective treatments. The goal is to reduce cancer mortality rates by 50% over the next 25 years. It’s going to take all of us to achieve those kinds of results.

AW: When I first took on this position, I said, "Cancer is the competition," and I still believe it. Health systems cannot address cancer in silos. Cancer is a crisis too big and complex to go it alone. Traditional and non-traditional partnerships are essential, which is why City of Hope is a community-focused organization that will work with anyone who wants to beat cancer. Among our non-traditional partners is a nationallyrecognized developer who has been instrumental in making it possible for us to deliver advanced cancer services in the heart of the community.

EK: I echo Annette’s comments. In fact, bringing cancer to our legislators’ attention is extremely important. Last year, we saw enactment of the Cancer Patients Bill of Rights in California, which increases access to cancer services and recognizes that people need these types of protections to attain equitable care. Getting the healthcare industry, government leaders and others behind measures like this are going to be essential to protect those with cancer and prevent people from getting it in the first place.

WA: We took the approach of designing the City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center around the patients and caregivers. This center is uniquely patient-centric and human-centric, and that is how we believe healthcare should be delivered. Our humanity is literally built into the foundation. When we started building, our team left messages of hope in the concrete. In designing the center, we invited the community to help make decisions, asking 500 residents, former patients, healthcare experts and more to help develop many healing aspects of the building. I truly believe this is how to move forward in cancer care, recognizing the mind/body/spirit connection and serving the whole person.

EK: Compassion and whole-person care are foundational at City of Hope. And so is speed. The only way we will end this crisis is if we recognize it has been 50 years since the war on cancer. We cannot wait another 50 years for cancer to end. This is our moment in time to get to the finish line. We must join together for that big and final push.

AW: We are opening this center and providing a model for the country. With our singular focus on treating and ending cancer, we need to harness the same energy that our country rallied to face COVID-19, and direct it toward a cancer epidemic that has endured for too long. As a nation, we have already proven that we have the talent and commitment to take on tremendous healthcare challenges. We can make this the generation that ends cancer once and for all.