Prostate Cancer Foundation-Department of Veterans Affairs Partnership: A Model of Public-Private Collaboration to Advance Treatment and Care of Invasive Cancers

Conclusions

The PCF-VA partnership serves as an example of a public-private health partnership pursuing strategic pathways and bold goals to ensure that every eligible veteran has access to precision oncology. These pathways include advocacy on the part of executive leadership, recognizing existing economies of scale, building compelling narratives to maximize funding, creating flexible requirements, and facilitating a robust, resource-rich scientific network. This partnership already has opened doors to future initiatives and continues to adapt to a rapidly changing health landscape. The discussed strategies have the potential to inform future health initiatives and showcase how a systemic approach to eradicating health inequities can greatly benefit underserved communities.

The success of the PCF-VA partnership represents more than just an efficient partnership model. The partnership’s emphasis on veterans, who exemplify service, highlights the extent to which cancer patients sacrifice to contribute to medical research. This service necessitates a service in kind: all health stakeholders share the responsibility to rapidly advance therapies and care, both to honor the patients who have come before, and to meet the needs of patients with treatment resistant forms of the disease urgently awaiting precision breakthroughs and cures.