Cancer prevention: major initiatives and looking into the future

Cancer is one of the major causes of death in countries across the world. However, at least half of cancers could be prevented. This article reviews the relationship between cancer incidence and the major risk factors: tobacco use, exposure to infections, nutrition, obesity and physical activity. Several major current cancer prevention initiatives are presented, including the effort for global tobacco control, vaccination programs for human papilloma virus, chemoprevention, and cohort studies to identify and elucidate cancer causes. Two concerns that cross the cancer prevention research spectrum are the importance of social determinants of health, and the potential role of genetic factors in explaining cancer incidence and guiding intervention development. In the future, optimism is warranted regarding cancer prevention. If currently known criteria are applied and extended, significant reductions in cancer rates are possible.