WORCESTER, Mass. - In a speech in Boston Monday, President Joe Biden urged Americans to come together for a new “national purpose” to end cancer as we know it.

Dr. Jonathan Gerber, medical director of the cancer center at UMass Memorial Health, said the 'Cancer Moonshot' mission is a lofty but achievable goal.

In his speech, Biden likened the space race to his own effort of cutting U.S. cancer deaths in half over the next 25 years, while improving the lives of caregivers and those battling cancer.

He also laid out a number of priorities including closing the screening gap, understanding and addressing environmental exposure, decreasing the impact of preventable cancers and bringing cutting edge research to patients.

Gerber said UMass Memorial is very much in the mix of trying to advance research and bring better treatments to patients. He said he really appreciates Biden's commitment to ending cancer and this initiative will help to support health care research funding.

"This is how we are going to need to sort of corral the forces and have a unified vision in really innovative ways, not just on the research front but honestly administratively in order to make these things happen," Gerber said.

Biden also called on the private sector to make drugs more affordable and data more regularly available.