Arizona works to become epicenter in cancer fight

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - It's called "Moonshot" because the mission to cure cancer was something seemingly impossible, until now.

At a press conference on Thursday, world renound surgeon Dr. Patrick Soon Shiong announced the launch of Cancer Moonshot 2020 in Arizona.

"We are hopefully creating a platform that gives hope and there are so many options available," Dr. Soon Shiong said. "If you can actually identify in real time, before the patient is admitted to such toxic therapy, I think there's real hope."

For someone like Chrisie Funari, who lost her daughter to cancer, to have this groundbreaking initiative in Arizona is more than incredible, it's personal.

Over time, Dr. Soon Shiong says the goal is to develop an effective vaccine-based Immunotherapy to combat cancer by 2020 and they're doing it by changing the way we look at cancer.

Now in phase two, over the next 36 months, Arizona will become the headquarters of one of the most ambitious initiatives to cure cancer, and that's something to be proud of.