Joe Biden Calls World Leaders To Find Cure For Cancer During Vatican Visit

Last year, Vice President Joe Biden’s son Beau, former Delaware Attorney General, died of brain cancer after expected medical breakthroughs failed to happen on time. This is why cancer is an even more urgent cause in Biden’s eyes.

The Catholic Vice President paid a visit to Pope Francis in the Vatican during an official trip to Italy, where he got to chat personally with the Pontiff, which Biden’s staff said was an absolute treat for the politician.

The Third International Regenerative Medicine Conference was held where Biden addressed the audience and urged world leaders to go above and beyond to help the fight against cancer. He called the disease a “constant emergency,” which does not distinguish between nationalities, races or religions; and therefore, is a worldwide problem. “The truth is that today, more than at any point in human history, we have a genuine opportunity to help more people all across the world than ever before,” Biden said.

"Research, whether in academia and industry, requires unwavering attention to moral issues if it is to be an instrument which safeguards human life and the dignity of the person," the Pope explained.

Further on, the Pontiff urged the world to stop ignoring causes and start acting in a more humane way. “This is why the globalization of indifference must be countered by the globalization of empathy,” Francis insisted.

In an effort on the matter, President Obama took the time during his historic March trip to Cuba, to move the process forward so that a life-saving vaccine to prevent lung cancer the island’s had for years, can come to the U.S. to start clinical trials as soon as possible. This, of course, had not been possible before because of the 55-year trade embargo the two countries faced.

Studies have shown the vaccine could offer high-risk patients an additional 18 years of life, as it keeps the deadliest type of cancer cells form growing in the tissues of the lung, attacking a hormone called epidermal growth factor, or EGF.