Combining Large Datasets - Cancer Moonshot Task Group Final Summary

Abstract

In February 2022, President Biden re-ignited the Cancer Moonshot with bold new goals: to reduce the cancer death rate by half within 25 years and improve the lives of people with cancer and cancer survivors. To achieve these ambitious goals, the White House convened the first-ever Cancer Cabinet, bringing together departments and agencies from across the federal government to end cancer as we know it.The Cancer Cabinet convened three task forces and supporting task groups, including the Data and Innovation Task Force, which supported the Cancer Moonshot priority to “Deliver innovation to patients and communities.” In early 2023, the “Combining Large Datasets” (CoLD) Task Group was created within the Data and Innovation Task Force. The scope of the CoLD Task Group was how federal agencies combine large datasets for broad applications across cancer prevention and control, including nutrition, epidemiology, and military/Veteran health. Within this scope, the group sought to better leverage the immense potential of data and power of data tools to increase our understanding of cancer incidence, causes, mortality, treatments, prevention, outcomes, costs, and all other aspects of the burden of cancer.