With its latest move, the Obama government has proved that it is getting ready to push up research and development efforts to find cure for cancer. But, it seems that Vice President of the United States Joe Biden was grounding his space metaphor, just a few days after announcing cancer ‘moonshot’.

The 47th US Vice-President used the lofty analogy four months ago. Biden’s son had died of brain cancer a few months before that. The cancer ‘moonshot’ grabbed headlines again last month when US President Barack Obama asked Biden to lead the government’s cancer moonshot task force.

About a month ago, Biden announced the program to end cancer at the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia. At that time, Biden was observed backing away from the metaphor.

Biden said that the word ‘moonshot’ is an unfortunate one, said Dr. Chi Van Dang, director the Abramson Cancer Center. “It implies something too simple; that we can just assemble the engineers and the astronauts, make the rocket, and we’ll get to the moon and back. He said, ‘It’s going to be a lot more complicated than that”, Dang added.

Critics have been keeping a close eye at Biden’s moonshot and seized upon the flaws. Its $1-billion price tag has been their prime target. According to them, the fund is not even enough to bring a single drug to market.

But Dang, who is also a cancer expert, said Biden has already shown his backtrack on the metaphor, which is a good sign. It shows that the government’s cancer ‘moonshot’ is going to be more difficult than landing a person on the moon.

Talking about cancer means considering over two hundred diseases, said Jon Retzlaff from the American Association for Cancer Research. If comparing with landing on moon, it means you have to visit 200 different space objects, Retzlaff added.

The TheStar News notes that, at the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia Pa., where Biden kicked off his bid to “end cancer as we know it” on Jan. 15, he was already backing away from the metaphor.

“The first thing he said was, ‘You know, the choice of the word “moonshot” may have been an unfortunate one,’” said Dr. Chi Van Dang, the centre’s director. “It implies something too simple; that we can just assemble the engineers and the astronauts, make the rocket, and we’ll get to the moon and back,” Dang recalls Biden saying.

“He said, ‘It’s going to be a lot more complicated than that.’”

In other news NewsDay News reported, like many oncologists and cancer researchers, I rolled my eyes when I first heard about Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer “moon shot,” but not because of the noble goal. I was among the many people who were sorry to hear about the death of the vice president’s son Beau from cancer last year.

And I, too, have mourned the untimely deaths from the disease of people close to me. Those of us who care for cancer patients would give nearly anything to be able to cure all those with cancer, or at a minimum, to greatly extend their lives. Today, we can sometimes do this, but sadly those circumstances remain far too limited.

In a statement provided to HitConsultant News, of course, we still have a long way to go. It has taken us over 40 years to get to this point, and despite the many successes, many cancers are still deadly. This is why another moonshot has been launched; to take the fight against cancer to a much higher level.

But is a moonshot to cure cancer realistic? And in 10 years? There are very few, if any, cancer doctors that will tell you it’s probable…and for good reason.