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Science Forum Index » Medicine - Cancer Forum » Realizing the Hope of Cancer Prevention
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| E.Nigma |
 Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:32 pm |
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http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/NCI_Cancer_Bulletin_121206
At the time the NCA was passed 35 years ago, the term chemoprevention
- - using drugs to prevent cancer in those at high risk - had yet to be
coined. The first results from a chemoprevention clinical trial
wouldn't be published until 1990 (an analog of vitamin A to prevent
mouth and throat tumors), but by the end of that decade, the Breast
Cancer Prevention Trial would demonstrate that, compared with
placebo, tamoxifen cuts the risk of breast cancer nearly in half in
women at increased risk, a result that led it to be the first drug
approved by the FDA for cancer risk reduction.
Since then, exciting results have also been seen in chemoprevention
trials for prostate and colon cancer, while the STAR trial, published
earlier this year, showed that the osteoporosis drug raloxifene was
as effective as tamoxifen at reducing breast cancer risk, but with
fewer serious side effects.
"Medical approaches to cancer prevention have taken hold and are an
exciting research frontier," says Dr. Peter Greenwald, director of
NCI's Division of Cancer Prevention.
As the chemoprevention results demonstrate, the science of prevention
has matured tremendously since the NCA was enacted. Improvements in
statistical methods, for instance, have allowed researchers to
determine with a good degree of certainty whether factors such as
alcohol consumption, smoking, dietary and physical activity patterns,
workplace exposures, and others increase - or decrease - the risk of
certain cancers.
Improvements in technology that have allowed researchers to more
closely scrutinize the molecular machinery of cancer have helped
identify mutated genes that put a person at increased risk of
specific cancers - the most well known and well studied of which may
be BRCA1 and BRCA2 in breast and ovarian cancer.
Meanwhile, for several cancer types, improvements in screening have
allowed clinicians to detect cancers, or precancerous conditions, at
very early stages, resulting in vastly improved outcomes for many
thousands of patients.
Of the advances made over the last 35 years in cancer prevention, the
substantial reduction in smoking prevalence has been among the most
important.
Dr. Robert Croyle, director of NCI's Division of Cancer Control and
Population Sciences, cites numerous factors that helped to bring
about this reduction, including higher taxes on tobacco products,
restrictions on smoking in workplaces and public places,
comprehensive state-based tobacco control programs, local and
national antismoking campaigns, and effective treatments for nicotine
dependence.
"Research funded by NCI has helped us understand that, to be
effective, we need to impact the individual and change the
environment to support a nonsmoking norm," Dr. Croyle said.
This year marked a truly remarkable prevention milestone: the FDA's
approval of an HPV vaccine, which protects against the two HPV types
that are responsible for 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer
and is the first-ever vaccine designed specifically to prevent
cancer.
As Dr. Greenwald stresses, though, the last three decades of cancer
prevention research have made one conclusion abundantly clear: "More
and more evidence has established that the way you live your life
affects your chances of getting cancer.
"The key things most people should do are eat smaller portions of
food, establish a balanced diet, limit high-calorie drinks, exercise
throughout life, and, of course, don't start smoking and, if you do
smoke, stop."
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Do you know someone who would enjoy receiving the NCI Cancer
Bulletin? To send a copy of the latest issue to a colleague, visit
www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin.
E.
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