First Lady Jill Biden visits La. Cancer Research Center in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - First lady Jill Biden spent nearly two hours at the Louisiana Cancer Research Center on Friday (March 10) to emphasize the importance of ongoing research in the fight against cancer.

It was her first visit to Louisiana since becoming the nation’s first lady.

Dr. Biden toured the facility and talked with LSU and Tulane scientists there. The research center includes a consortium of entities in the local scientific community, including LSU, Tulane, and Xavier universities and Ochsner Health.

Before a packed audience, Biden said her sister is a lymphoma survivor. Biden’s son Beau lost his battle with brain cancer in 2015.

“Cancer changes everyone it touches and in some ways, we all know this; it touches us all. This community knows that more than most, so many families here in Louisiana have lost loved ones to this disease,” said Biden.

She said touted the work being done at the cancer center. And she and the president said cancer does not discriminate and does not care whether someone is “blue” or “red”, in terms of political ideology.

“The breakthroughs and the discoveries that you make here, every cancer-causing virus we learn how to defect; every clinical trial that ends in success becomes the miracle that our families are praying for. Your work changes lives and it saves lives,” said Dr. Biden.

MORE: Jill Biden promoting cancer research in New Orleans

She was joined on the tour by the center’s director and CEO Joe Ramos, Ph.D., and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, (R-LA) and his wife Dr. Laura Cassidy, Congressman Troy Carter (D-La.) and Mayor Latoya Cantrell.

“In everything, we do we have to address the profound health equity and cancer disparities faced by so many in our state,” said Ramos.

Sen. Cassidy is also a medical doctor who specializes in gastroenterology.

“We have a population prone to both developing cancer and hence to die,” he said.

Carter also talked about the prevalence of cancer in Louisiana.

“We won’t turn a blind eye to the reality that for far too many, life in our state includes experiences with this deadly disease but it doesn’t always have to be that way,” said Carter.

In 2016, as vice president, Joe Biden led the Cancer Moonshot initiative and revived it in 2022 as president.

And in doing so, President Biden has set a new national goal of cutting the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years.

Biden’s proposed fiscal 2024 budget increases the federal government’s investment in cancer research.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.

Copyright 2023 WVUE. All rights reserved.