Better access to cases data vital to fighting cancer: Biden

Stressing that research and therapies are on the cusp of incredible breakthroughs, US Vice-President Joe Biden has said tapping the treasure trove of information on cancer cases is vital in the fight against the disease.
"We are not looking for incremental changes; we are looking for quantum leaps... We are at an inflection point," Biden said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meet here.
He also discussed priorities for the American government's initiative to cure cancer with eminent scientists and technologists.
According to him, better access to and analysis of data would speed up progress in developing effective cancer treatment through scientific breakthroughs in such fields as genetics and nanotechnology.

Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama launched the 'moonshot' campaign to cure cancer and Biden is in-charge of the anti-cancer initiative.
"Research and therapies are on the cusp of incredible breakthroughs," he said.

The US V-P emphasised that tapping the treasure trove of data and information on cancer cases, research and treatments across a whole range of disciplines is vital to achieving significant progress in fighting the disease.
"We can speed up research advances and access to cures. We can do more if this information is widely shared. We are going to make sure of that," he added.
Nobel Medicine Prize laureate Elizabeth Blackburn said there is need for dynamic big-data collection and promote ways of sharing data among scientists.