"Keep going, Dad," Biden said. "Beau, in the last week, he would say, 'Dad, look at me. I'm going to be alright no matter what happens. Promise me you're going to stay engaged.'"

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"This is something I think he'd be proud his mom and I were engaged in," Biden said.

Biden doesn't think there will be a cure for cancer in his lifetime, but says his goal of a decade's worth of new research in five years is attainable.

"You're going to see new therapies that are going to be able to detect early," Biden said. "There's now technology and research to use a blood test to determine sometimes 10 to 20 years in advance whether or not you have a marker in your blood that makes you susceptible to certain kinds of cancer."