New Collaborative Partnership with Biden Cancer Initiative

ALK Positive is excited to join the Biden Cancer Initiative through our partnership with the new Oncogene Collaborative Initiative (OCI), a Biden project, in which patient driven advocacy groups from various oncogenes will collaborate to improve biomarker testing and treatment for cancer patients. Below is the Biden press release for tomorrow's Cancer Summit in Washington, DC.

Biden Cancer Summit – September 21, 2018 The lung cancer patient advocacy group, ALK Positive, along with additional lung cancer patient advocacy groups, have joined forces to create the Oncogene Collaboration Initiative (OCI). The OCI is committed to aligning necessary partners to bridge current gaps in awareness and knowledge of guideline-adherent biomarker testing and optimal treatment through an educational platform. OCI collaborators include the American Cancer Society (ACS), the National Lung Cancer Roundtable (NLCRT) and biomarker/genomic testing experts. Lung Cancer is a highly stigmatized disease, a national crisis, and the number one cancer killer in the United States with 450 patients dying each day of lung cancer in the US alone. Eighty-five percent of lung cancer patients are diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The OCI represents NSCLC patients (a majority of whom have never smoked) who possess a targeted gene mutation for which an FDA-approved targeted therapy is currently available. However, many of these lung cancer patients are dying due to the failure of receiving guideline-adherent biomarker genetic testing and effective treatments. It is vital that all NSCLC patients benefit from existing life altering diagnostic testing and treatment. Lung cancer is a national crisis that has created a sense of urgency to bring about a unique collaboration between patient advocacy groups and lung cancer organizations to connect the dots between education, research and the thousands of patients voices suffering from this terrible disease.