Prevention What about preventing cancer? As a profession, we are often criticized for not paying enough attention to cancer prevention. Before 1971, however, we knew little about how to prevent cancer besides urging people not to smoke. Even with smoking, we did not then have the information about the harmful effect of second-hand smoke that has recently given the anti-smoking drive so much steam. We knew much more about how to treat cancer than prevent it until a large investment in a research area called epidemiology, which did not start in earnest until around 1978, gave us the necessary leads to pursue in cancer prevention. We now know we should be able to prevent most cancers.
We also have new techniques to identify people who are at risk and methods to explore to prevent common cancers. In fact, it may soon be possible to test cord blood from a newborn infant and determine his or her risk of getting cancer as an adult. As exciting as it may be, this process will present scary ethical dilemmas if our ability to prevent cancer does not keep pace with our ability to detect those at risk. Chemicals are already in hand that are known to interrupt the wild signaling process of a cancer cell that can prevent cancer cells in culture from maintaining the malignant state. The National Cancer Institute of the United States is supporting more than 50 clinical trials around the world that attempt to prevent cancer, and there have already been some glimmerings of success.
