USC plays a role in national Cancer Moonshot program

USC is involved in two of the new initiatives unveiled at last week's White House Cancer Moonshot summit. 

One is a crowd sourcing platform created by Peter Kuhn, a USC professor of biological science, medicine and biomedical engineering.

CancerBase, as it's called, is a collaboration of  patients, USC and Stanford University scientists and social media companies. It aims to create a real-time, global "cancer map" from patient data submitted anonymously through Facebook, according to USC spokeswoman Emily Gersema.

The goal, she says,  is to enable patients to make better informed decisions about their care by allowing them to compare how others with similar cancers have fared using various treatments.

Kuhn will also partner with scientists from the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute to advance new cancer-cell detection technology that can better identify patients whose cancer has returned after surgery or other treatment.

 Both institutions will build and operate identical laboratories with real-time sharing of research data and experimental procedures, according to the White House. And both will jointly design clinical studies intended to accelerate development of the  technology.

The Cancer Moonshot is a $1 billion initiative led by Vice President Joe Biden. It is funding efforts to accelerate the development of new cancer treatments and detection tools.