US Vice President Joe Biden has praised the "profound" efforts of Victoria's new billion-dollar cancer centre and declared the world on the cusp of major breakthroughs in treatment.

Mr Biden - who lost his eldest son to brain cancer last year - toured the labs of the new cancer research and treatment centre on Sunday at the beginning of a four-day visit to Australia. 

Calling for a "team sport" collaboration in the fight against cancer, Mr Biden announced the US and Australia will sign a deal  to share about 60,000 patient records to study the genetic makeup of different types of cancer.

He said the potential breakthroughs offered by supercomputing could hopefully lead to a future where cancer treatment was a simple as tackling diseases such as mumps or measles.

Mr Biden said the loss of his son Beau - who was 46 - had brought home the urgency of sharing as much information as possible in what can quickly become precious time.

"You try and learn as much as you can as rapidly as you can," Mr Biden said.

President Barack Obama has put Mr Biden in charge of what is called a "moonshot" research drive to see rapid advances in cancer research.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre would be home to treatment, training, research and care at one location.

Researcher Sherene Loi demonstrated to Mr Biden the work the centre was doing, highlighting cells in the body that attempt to attack the disease.

"The big question is why do some breast cancers produce an immune response and some don't," Professor Loi said.

Mr Biden said the information would be shared with privacy safeguards.

More to come