Chemopreventive agents show promise for preventing and reversing cancer development

Chemoprevention of cancer aims to prevent, arrest, or reverse either the initiation phase of carcinogenesis or the progression of neoplastic cells to cancer. It has been an active area of research for several decades; the use of retinoids to prevent cancer of the head and neck is a notable example.1 Chemoprevention is widely used and readily accepted by doctors and patients in the form of drugs that lower cholesterol concentrations and blood pressure to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. It can also be used in some apparently healthy people at risk of cancer to prevent or reduce their risk of developing invasive disease. The biomedical community needs to recognise and advocate approaches to prevent cancer with the same enthusiasm that it currently directs towards treating it.