Cancer ‘moonshot’ aims to speed fight against No. 2 killer

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2016 file-pool photo, Vice President Joe Biden points at President Barack Obama during the president's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. Harking back to America's triumphant race into space, the Obama administration is launching what it calls a "moonshot" effort to cure cancer. Don’t expect miracles in the president's last months, but there has been striking progress in recent years. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool, File) FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2016 file-pool photo, Vice President Joe Biden points at President Barack Obama during the president's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. Harking back to America's triumphant race into space, the Obama administration is launching what it calls a "moonshot" effort to cure cancer. Don’t expect miracles in the president's last months, but there has been striking progress in recent years. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool, File)

By Associated Press January 14, 2016 5 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Harking back to America’s triumphant race into space, the Obama administration is launching what it calls a “moonshot” effort to cure cancer.

Don’t expect miracles in the administration’s last months in office.

“It probably won’t be cured in my lifetime, but I think it’ll be cured in yours,” President Barack Obama told a 4th-grader in Baton Rouge on Thursday.

There’s been striking progress in recent years even though cancer remains the nation’s No. 2 killer. Obama assigned Vice President Joe Biden to figure out how to speed that progress. Details are still to come but topping Biden’s wish list is increased research funding and getting scientists to better share data to spur breakthroughs.

Here’s a look at the state of cancer: