Transcript - Remarks: Joe Biden Tours the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus - March 23, 2021 | Factba.se

Arnab Chakravarti

00:00:00 - 00:00:18 ()

[In Progress] very momentous day. Um, of course, 11 years ago to this day, the Affordable Care Act legislation was signed and as part of that was $100 million grant award to the Ohio State University Radiation Oncology Department, which I was very honored to be a part of, very competitive process. But, um, certainly this grant award was transformational for Ohio State. But the legislation itself was hugely transformational for Ohio State and the entire country.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:00:18 - 00:00:38 ()

So, I'd really like to take this opportunity to describe what type of impact this legislation and grant has had on the institution and cancer patients in general. So, the -- the, really the way we view this is that this is a war on cancer, and you're our commander in chief, we're your lieutenants, but first and foremost we're service to our cancer patients to give them the best care possible, so we thank you for all of your support.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:00:38 - 00:00:41 ()

Now, if you'll notice, Mr. President, we're standing by what we call The Bell of Hope.

Joe Biden

00:00:41 - 00:00:42 ()

Arnab Chakravarti

00:00:42 - 00:00:53 ()

So, let me explain kind of the significance if I could, Mr. President. Uh, typically about 70% of all cancer patients receive radiation at some point during their treatment and, um, typically these treatment courses can last up to six to eight weeks per patients. It's a long course of treatment and, um, the patients go through a lot during the course of treatment.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:00:53 - 00:00:56 ()

So, the tradition here in our department is the very last treatment --

Joe Biden

00:00:56 - 00:00:57 ()

Arnab Chakravarti

00:00:57 - 00:01:15 ()

-- uh, the patients will ring the bell, and it's symbolic of several things, Mr. President. It's symbolic of bravery. It's symbolic of the res -- resiliency of the patients. They're overcoming long odds here, long, long odds. And finally, it's symbolic of hope, hope for the future. So, um, this bell right here means a lot, not only to us but our patient populations, so -- so really thanked, thanks for letting me share that with you.

Joe Biden

00:01:15 - 00:01:32 ()

Well, doc, I, uh, unfortunately I'm pretty familiar with the bell, not here but, uh, my son when he came home as a decorated war hero from Iraq, uh, when he was diagnosed with, uh, stage 4 glioblastoma, and you know then it's only matter of months, not if, you're gonna live in most cases. And, uh, I had a change to visit, uh, literally, the person who put me in charge of the so-called moonshot --

Arnab Chakravarti

00:01:32 - 00:01:32 ()

Joe Biden

00:01:32 - 00:01:48 ()

-- because I had said when I announced I wasn't gonna seek election that year, the last year of our administration, that I, my only regret, because then the person asked me if I have any regrets (laughs), but I said ahead of time my only regret was that I wasn't going to be the president who's gonna preside over cancer, uh, the end of cancer as we know it.

Joe Biden

00:01:48 - 00:02:10 ()

Not all cancers then, but as we know it. And, uh, the president allowed me to do this moonshot, and one of the things that I have been thinking you should be given credit for is, the use of radiation is a very complex thing and, uh, my son, uh, anyway, my son underwent it and, uh, but one of the things that is happening, as the doc could tell you, radiation is a complicated deal, and now there's a lot of talk about using protons that do not do as much damage.

Joe Biden

00:02:10 - 00:02:20 ()

Radiation kills all the bad things, but also kills any good thing it comes in contact with. And so, uh, that and immunotherapy that you're working on now --

Arnab Chakravarti

00:02:20 - 00:02:21 ()

Joe Biden

00:02:21 - 00:02:44 ()

-- are I think hold the key. One of the things that I wanna do, and we talked about it, Joyce and I talked about it, is, you know, the Defense Department doc has a provision, has an outfit called DARPA. DARPA's a separate agency within the Defense Department, which is a $300 billion-plus department, a -- a -- o -- o -- o -- operation, that works on things completely separate from what the rest of the military's doing to deal with the problems of the future.

Joe Biden

00:02:44 - 00:03:10 ()

Those are guys that came up with the whole idea of the internet. They're the ones that did the internet. Al Gore's a great guy, but he didn't do the internet, and also the guys, the -- the folks that, uh, came with geopositioning, a whole range of things I like to see. I'm convinced, after we did the Beau Biden Initiative and the last thing we did in Congress when I was there as a, uh, vice president, is that I think if we can f -- f -- focus on and make the kind of investments that the other companies can't make, they're -- they're not gonna make a $200 million investment in --

Arnab Chakravarti

00:03:10 - 00:03:10 ()

Joe Biden

00:03:10 - 00:03:35 ()

-- for example, a new form of, uh, you know, therapy, and so I hope we're gonna be able to convince the congress. I'll be introducing this before the year is out probably. I'd like to have an ARPA, the he -- health, the a -- ARPA instead of just DARPA Defense a -- application. This is gonna be for the h -- Department of Health and Educa -- health, n -- NIH, t -- so they're a completely separate entity and be able to do all the experimental things.

Joe Biden

00:03:35 - 00:03:49 ()

And I say to the press here, if we don't do something, for example about Alzheimer's, every single bed in American hospitals today will be occupied by someone with Alzheimer's within 20 years, every single bed. But, this guy and his colleagues around the country have a chance to deal with cancer in a way that they've never thought about before, and this is one of the great hospitals doing it, and I wanna thank you for what you're doing.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:03:49 - 00:03:50 ()

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.

Note

00:03:50 - 00:03:50 ()

[Break in the video, as the press pool moves to a different location.]

Arnab Chakravarti

00:03:50 - 00:04:05 ()

So, Mr. President, this is a linear accelerator vault. This is where we treat our cancer patients. And this is where the ACA grant really did help us out tremendously in terms of improving our technology in the department. So this patient here, this is, um, a dummy that's set up for applying radiation to a glioblastoma, that's brain metastases.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:04:05 - 00:04:14 ()

And these types of tumors are insidious. They're among the most aggressive of all known human tumors, because, number one, they're cloaked in this whole -- You can't see the microscopic extensions of these tumors using the best MRI scans, so just tracking them is very difficult. They're often located next to very critical structures, too.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:04:14 - 00:04:28 ()

So the challenge is to give the tumor a high dose while protecting normal tissues. So these types of systems, like the Varian Edge system, is one of the most cutting edge in terms of delivering high doses to the tumor, but protecting normal tissues, and this represents a significant advance in the treatment of these types of tumors from a technological standpoint.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:04:28 - 00:04:42 ()

As a result, patients with these types of tumors who are treated in our department have had steadily improving outcomes, although still this is a tough -- These tumors are tough to conquer, very hard to conquer. So, uh, we're also working on drugs, creating drugs and immune therapies in combination with radiation to potentiate its effects, and, um, really are starting to see some promising signs for some of these tumors.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:04:42 - 00:04:42 ()

Joe Biden

00:04:42 - 00:04:43 ()

How, how, uh --

Arnab Chakravarti

00:04:43 - 00:04:43 ()

Joe Biden

00:04:43 - 00:04:47 ()

Difficult, for example, in glioblastoma, to break the blood-brain barrier?

Arnab Chakravarti

00:04:47 - 00:05:00 ()

Yes. That's probably the toughest challenge to deliver an effective drug. You can have the most effective drug in a Petri dish, but to overcome the blood-brain barrier is a difficult proposition. So the best drug therapies often fall short in glioblastomas. And that brings me to a new technology that has emerged as a consequence of this ACA grant, Mr.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:05:00 - 00:05:15 ()

President, which is right behind you. The Mobetron. So, Mobetron, this is the -- North America's very first flash Mobetron device, and what I mean by flash therapy, M -- Mr. President, is super high dose rates of radiation that are about 10,000 fold more powerful than conventional radiation. That device is about 10,000 times more power than this conventional creation.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:05:15 - 00:05:20 ()

And the entire treatment course, in theory, Mr. President, can be delivered in less than a tenth of a second.

Joe Biden

00:05:20 - 00:05:20 ()

Arnab Chakravarti

00:05:20 - 00:05:35 ()

Believe it -- Yeah, six to eight weeks of treatment [Inaudible] in less than a tenth of a second. So, Mr. President, we're working right now to develop the safety, kind of making this as safe as possible for use in human subjects. We're working in partnership with our vet school to conduct clinical trials on dogs, cats, and horses with various types of cancers.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:05:35 - 00:05:50 ()

We have one of the best schools in the world here at Ohio State. Um, dogs are predisposed to certain types of gliomas, brain tumors, so it's a good model to use, and oftentimes the current therapies aren't very effective. So if this pans out, Mr. President, this would be a game-changer --

Joe Biden

00:05:50 - 00:05:51 ()

Arnab Chakravarti

00:05:51 - 00:05:51 ()

On cancer relief.

Joe Biden

00:05:51 - 00:05:52 ()

Arnab Chakravarti

00:05:52 - 00:05:54 ()

Accuracy is within a million.

Joe Biden

00:05:54 - 00:05:55 ()

And, uh, is that so?

Arnab Chakravarti

00:05:55 - 00:05:55 ()

Joe Biden

00:05:55 - 00:06:04 ()

And by the way, dogs may help cure cancer. Not a joke. Dogs are able to -- They're using dogs now because they'll [Inaudible] the gland germs. Four hundred times what a human is, to smell cancer in people's legs and people's bodies. It's not a joke. It's a fascinating thing.

Question

00:06:04 - 00:06:09 ()

Sir, is it comforting or is it hopeful or more painful for you to hear about cancer developments like this?

Joe Biden

00:06:09 - 00:06:13 ()

It's -- it's mostly hopeful because I don't want to see anybody go through what my son went through.

Joe Biden

00:06:13 - 00:06:28 ()

One of the things you should be aware of: There are probably more soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines coming home with brain cancers than any time in American history because of exposure. Some of you have read about the burn pits. There's a lot of research that still has to be done to determine whether or not exposure to these toxins in the air have something to do with it. Also, you have an awful lot of these IEDs have caused brain trauma in other ways as well.

Joe Biden

00:06:28 - 00:06:49 ()

So, it really is something that I think is going to encourage us to spend a lot more time in the government focusing on. A little bit like, you know, what used to have to -- with Agent Orange: You'd have to prove that, even though you were drenched in it and it rained on you, that whatever your problem was was a consequence of that. It was very hard to prove. I finally got a bill passed, as a senator, saying, if you were drenched, you're automatically assumed -- whatever your problem is, related to that.

Joe Biden

00:06:49 - 00:06:57 ()

Same thing now with an IED. If you were near a concussion, you have a problem with -- it's assumed the government has responsibility for it. And -- but there's a lot going on, and the Doc could tell you more.

Joe Biden

00:06:57 - 00:06:59 ()

But one of things that really excites me, Doc, is the idea that we're moving into potential immunotherapy initiatives that -- what they did with Beau, they injected an adenovirus into the brain.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:06:59 - 00:06:59 ()

Joe Biden

00:06:59 - 00:07:04 ()

And it -- they were -- they were giddy, initially, at all of the -- the human body coming in to eat up the virus, but it just kept going. And because there had been some damage from radiation on a blood vessel, it -- things got -- it didn't work.

Joe Biden

00:07:04 - 00:07:06 ()

But there's real hope for people. There's real hope.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:07:06 - 00:07:07 ()

And, Mr. President, with this FLASH therapy, there's more -- much more synergism with immune therapy than with conventional radiation --

Joe Biden

00:07:07 - 00:07:10 ()

Yeah, I agree with that.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:07:10 - 00:07:11 ()

-- we're finding.

Joe Biden

00:07:11 - 00:07:14 ()

Not that I agree. I don't mean like -- as if I -- matters what I agree on.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:07:14 - 00:07:22 ()

And our Proton Center, which will be -- will treat our first patient 2023 -- will have FLASH capabilities. So it will combine the benefits of protons, FLASH, and immunotherapy together. So --

Joe Biden

00:07:22 - 00:07:24 ()

Explain the difference between a proton and radiation going --

Arnab Chakravarti

00:07:24 - 00:07:25 ()

Yes, great question. Great question.

Joe Biden

00:07:25 - 00:07:25 ()

It's really important.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:07:25 - 00:07:39 ()

Yes. So with conventional radiation therapy, like this unit right behind you, sir, this produces high-level X-ray energy radiation that's penetrative. It goes through normal tissues as well as tumor. So everything is treated: normal tissues and tumor together.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:07:39 - 00:07:45 ()

With proton therapy, the dose stops right at the tumor so you're not treating normal tissues. So it's a major advancement in the treatment of cancers.

Joe Biden

00:07:45 - 00:07:54 ()

Treating normal tissue sometimes is a very bad thing. Just -- it also -- it can destroy a normal tissue. It can destroy the cancer -- hit that -- but it goes through the cancer and destroys whatever is beyond it. Not just in the brain, but wherever it --

Joe Biden

00:07:54 - 00:08:01 ()

And so that's why I -- I think some of the -- a few of the Nobel laureates on my cancer facility are -- would argue that we should get -- we should start to focus on protons.

Arnab Chakravarti

00:08:01 - 00:08:02 ()

Joe Biden

00:08:02 - 00:08:06 ()

And because it doesn't have the same application, but it does less damage when it occurs -- when there is damage done.

Joe Biden

00:08:06 - 00:08:20 ()

And -- but it really is one of my regrets of becoming President: I had to give up the Biden Cancer Initiative because I couldn't raise any money for it. But we proposed -- there's literally six Nobel laureates on the board. A group -- a group of people that are like the Doc. I tried -- I almost called you to ask for you -- it's a long story but --

Joe Biden

00:08:20 - 00:08:41 ()

And -- but it is something that there's a lot -- these guys are on the edge of so many things. Think about it: Jimmy Carter was declared basically gone five times. Now, he's in trouble now, but it's amazing that -- you know, it's a little bit like -- it's why you should never give up hope. When the breakthrough comes, it just comes through. Not planned -- it's just, "Woah, we got it."

Joe Biden

00:08:41 - 00:08:42 ()

Anyway. I'm talking too much.

Question

00:08:42 - 00:08:49 ()

Mr. President, do you believe you have the political capital to make changes on gun measures right now?

Joe Biden

00:08:49 - 00:08:55 ()

I hope so. I don't know. I haven't done any counting yet.