One day the USA will be able to beat cancer, but it probably won’t happen anytime soon. President Obama expressed this opinion during his first trip to Baton Rouge as commander-in-chief on Thursday, capping his visit with a speech and town hall meeting at McKinley High School.

During the visit, a girl said, “My name is Noelle Remeny. And I’m in the fourth grade, and I’m 10 years old. And do you think there’s going to be a cure for cancer?”

President Obama asked her if she was interested in math and science, and then, after hearing her “A little bit,” said:

“A little bit? (Laughter.) I tell you what, it’s going to be young people like you that are going to help cure cancer. So you better study up on your math and study up on your science.

But I do think that we are seeing medical breakthroughs right now that we have not seen in my lifetime. Part of the reason is because -- some of you heard of the Human Genome Project. What happens is that we're now able to look at not just how cells work, but we're actually able to track how individual DNA and genetics operates. And when you do that, it turns out that a cancer cell that I have may be different than a cancer cell that John or somebody else has, and may require different cures. And certain treatments might work better than other treatments. And because we're able to get into the really nitty-gritty of how our bodies work in ways that we haven’t before, we're starting to see more effective treatments. 

But we have to make a big investment. And my Vice President, Joe Biden, who I love, suffered the kind of tragedy last year that is unbelievable. And he managed it with grace. His son Beau Biden was one of the finest men I knew. And so I thought it was entirely appropriate for Joe Biden, who has seen this and gone through it, to lead this effort like a moon launch. We're going to double down on medical research. We're going to look at the best -- we're going to gather the best researchers, the best scientists, and we are going to go after this thing.

It probably won’t be cured in my lifetime. But I think it will be cured in yours. And that's why we got to get started now.”