Published in:
01-03-2007 | Editorial
From epidemiology to cancer prevention: implications for the 21st Century
Author:
Graham A. Colditz
Published in:
Cancer Causes & Control
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Issue 2/2007
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Excerpt
As I move to Washington University School of Medicine and the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center I conclude my term as editor-in-chief of the journal. Over the past 8 years the journal has increased in number of issues and pages published per year, number of submission, and the scope of topics covered. The increase in articles reporting prevention interventions, risk communication, and related topics, reflects in part, the growing program of research funded by the US National Cancer Institute. As Dr. Giovannucci takes over as the Editor-in-Chief, bringing his extraordinary wealth of experience in nutrition and cancer to the leadership of the Journal, I will join the growing team of Associate Editors to work with him in the coming years. In the essay that follows, I reflect on the direction our field is taking. I also identify some of the challenges that we must address particularly in cancer epidemiology and cancer prevention more generally. To place this in context, we might consider that the emergence of the “genetic revolution” in medicine and public health provides hope and a distraction from the underlying mission of disease prevention, health promotion, and the reduction in the burden of cancer. Doll and Peto noted that uncovering the mechanism for an association is less important from a public health perspective than is knowing that the lifestyle factor causes cancer [
1]. …