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> The agency’s commitment is not expected to exceed $150 million to develop novel technologies that will allow surgeons to remove cancerous tumors with higher accuracy. If successful, these technologies will revolutionize surgeries, dramatically reducing rates of repeat procedures.

How does an incremental improvement in surgery (or chemo, or radiotherapy) constitute a cancer "moonshot" in 2024?

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I didn’t see the word moonshot used anywhere.

However, I think the “moonshot” concept is improving, and attempting, many different ideas and techniques over the next 25 years.

I looked up the original moonshot announcement:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...

While it’s not in the ARPA-H announcement, the broader press coverage is using the moonshot frame. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/us/politics/biden-researc...

It's part of the cancer moonshot announced near the end of the Obama administration and headed by then-VP Biden after his son died of cancer. This is just one small funding part of that broader effort.

Moonshot or no, these incremental improvements in surgery do translate into cured patients and saved lives. Surgery is the initial intervention in many cancers and the course of disease is highly sensitive to it.

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