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Support for Cancer Research

Some 80 percent of Americans support at least a 20 percent increase in funding for cancer research, according to Stat News. That, it notes, is about the amount that President Barack Obama has requested for the new cancer moonshot initiative.

In conjunction with Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Stat News polled 1,000 US adults about the moonshot initiative, which is being led by Vice President Joe Biden. According to Stat News, the initiative has bipartisan support, as 90 percent of Democrats and 79 percent of Republicans are for a jump in cancer research spending.

"The findings suggest that Obama and Biden can count on broad support for the cancer moonshot funding — as long as they and the Republicans who control Congress can agree how to pay for it," Stat News adds.

The poll also found that most Americans think that cancer treatments have improved in recent years. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, notes that while some cancer patients enjoy a better quality of life now, it's not true for all patients.

Stat News adds that Americans' generally positive view of advances in cancer treatment contrasts with their general dissatisfaction with the state of the country. But this sense of improvement in cancer treatment is likely driving people's support for increased funding, says Harvard's Robert Blendon, who ran the poll.

"People don't like to invest in areas where they don't think there's been any progress," he adds. "Here, they really think progress has been made, and everything falls from that."