Invigorating Cancer Prevention: Proposing Core Competencies in Cancer Prevention Research Training

Excerpt

Successes in cancer prevention research over the past 60 years have altered clinical care and had broad implications for public health. Notable examples include the development of chemopreventive agents (e.g., tamoxifen reducing breast cancer risk), vaccines against infectious agents known to cause cancer (hepatitis B and human papillomavirus), screening and early detection targeting groups at higher risk (colonoscopy for ages 50 and older), and recommendations for lifestyle modifications, some of which have also been accompanied by policy efforts (smoking cessation programs and bans on smoking in public places).[1, 2] Yet despite these laudable advances, there is a pervasive sense among both the public and those in the field that “we should be further along in preventing cancer.” This rigorous science and decades of work required for discoveries to be translated into public health practice seem to be largely under-recognized by both the public and scientific community. When advances in cancer research are highlighted, prevention of cancer rarely takes center stage. Even in this time when emphasis is placed on finding higher quality, lower cost health interventions in general, the word ‘prevention’ may not even be mentioned.¹ This state of affairs has led us to contemplate whether a new view of cancer prevention research training is necessary to energize this field and accelerate progress in preventing cancer. …