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Dr. Edjah Nduom, a neurosurgical oncologist and son of businessman and politician Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom has been commended by US President Joe Biden for his work in the fight against cancer
President Joe Biden on Wednesday relaunched the White House's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative, committing the US to working toward reducing the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years.
Dr Edjah Nduom's commendation came after he had introduced President Biden at the launching ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, February 2, 2022.
President Joe Biden told Dr Nduom how special he was to him.
“See that doctor on the end there, That’s the man who spent 18 months trying to save our son’s life. Doctor, I love you. The whole family loves you,” President Biden said.
Dr. Edjah Nduom, a neurosurgical oncologist is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Brain Tumor Society, USA.
He was first introduced at Wednesday’s ceremony by the Vice President, Kamala Harris, and he, in turn, introduced the US President.
“…Standing firm in that believe, it is my honour to introduce the person chartering the course ahead with vision, purpose and so much hope. The 46th President of the United States, our Advocate in Chief, Joe Biden,” Dr. Nduom said with rapturous applause from the audience.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday relaunched the White House's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative, committing America to work towards reducing the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years.
The American President pledged to bring a "fierce sense of urgency" to the fight against cancer and better support cancer patients and their families.
Profile of Dr. Edjah Nduom
Edjah K. Nduom, MD, FAANS, is Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine. A fellowship-trained and board certified neurosurgical oncologist, Dr. Nduom's clinical specialty is the surgical management of brain and spinal cord tumors. He is particularly interested in the safe resection of malignant tumors located in eloquent areas of the brain, the brainstem and spinal cord.
Dr. Nduom is a member of the Cancer Immunology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. He holds numerous positions in national and international medical societies. Notably, he is Co-Founder and Diasporan Representative of the Society for Neuro-Oncology Sub-Saharan Africa; International Outreach Committee Co-Chair of the Society for Neuro-Oncology; Membership Director of the Joint Tumor Section of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons; and Member of the Board of Directors of the National Brain Tumor Society.
Dr. Nduom received his MD from University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He completed a residency in Neurosurgery at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He completed a Research Fellowship in Neurosurgical Oncology in the Surgical Neurology Branch of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, and an additional Neurosurgical Oncology Fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Nduom's research focuses on the modulation of the immune system for the treatment of malignant brain tumors. He has presented his translational and clinical work on immune therapy for brain tumors at numerous national and international meetings.
Dr. Nduom has received several awards over the course of his career. Recent awards include:
• Academy Emerging Investigator by the American Academy of Neurological Surgery
• National Institutes of Health Director's Award
• 40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health by the National Minority Quality Forum
He is married to Kelley Nduom with two children.
CNN reported that President Joe Biden named Dr. Danielle Carnival, who serves in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as the White House Cancer Moonshot coordinator.
The President also announced the formation of a "Cancer Cabinet," with representatives from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Defense, Energy and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute and others across the executive branch.
Both the President and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about losing loved ones to cancer.
In 2015, Beau Biden, the President's eldest son and a former Delaware attorney general, died at age 46 after battling brain cancer.
Dr. Alfred Yung of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Center, who had treated Beau Biden, was also at the White House event.
"That's the man who spent 18 months trying to save our son's life. Doctor, I love you," the President said as he pointed Yung out in the crowd.
Harris spoke about losing her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, to colon cancer in 2009. Gopalan was a breast cancer researcher.
"After a lifetime working to end cancer, cancer ended my mother's life. I will never forget the day that she sat my sister and me down and told us she had been diagnosed with colon cancer. It was one of the worst days of my life," Harris said at the White House event.
"I miss my mother every day," Harris said. "And I carry her memory with me wherever I go. When President Biden launched his Cancer Moonshot five years ago, I of course thought of my mother."
Biden called on Congress to fund his proposal to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a new program aimed at driving innovation in health research that will focus initially on diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.
The President said Americans missed more than 9 million cancer screenings in the past two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He urged anyone who missed their screening to call their doctor as soon as possible to get one scheduled.
Biden initially helmed the initiative when he was serving in the Obama administration as vice president. It is aimed at accelerating the nation's rate of progress in the fight against cancer.
Wednesday's relaunch of the program does not include any new funding. In December 2016, Congress authorized $1.8 billion to fund the Cancer Moonshot over a seven-year period, with $400 million in funding still authorized for 2022 and 2023.
In a presidential memorandum in 2016, then-President Barack Obama tasked Biden with leading the White House Task Force aimed at curing cancer. At the time, Biden pledged that though he was "not naïve about the challenges ahead, he had "never been more optimistic that we can do big things."
"I know we can do this. I truly believe it," Biden wrote at the time. "And I want you to know that I'll be focusing the rest of the time I have in office -- and the rest of my life-- on this effort."
In addition, the White House will host a Cancer Moonshot Summit, "bringing together agency leadership, patient organizations, biopharmaceutical companies, the research, public health, and healthcare communities and more to highlight innovation, progress, and new commitments toward ending cancer as we know it," and launch a website where American can track the progress of the initiative's mission.
A senior administration official told reporters on a call Tuesday previewing the President's announcement that success over the first five years of the program allowed the administration to set "really ambitious goals" moving forward.
The official also cited medical advances achieved in the fight against Covid-19, including research into mRNA vaccines, as areas rich in potential for fighting cancer.
