More than half of all cancer is preventable

Public health researchers outline obstacles standing in the way of prevention

More than half of all cancer is preventable, and society has the knowledge to act on this information today, according to Washington University public health researchers at the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis.

In a review article published March 28 in Science Translational Medicine, the investigators outline obstacles they say stand in the way of making a huge dent in the cancer burden in the United States and around the world.

“We actually have an enormous amount of data about the causes and preventability of cancer,” says epidemiologist Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH, the Niess-Gain Professor at the School of Medicine and associate director of prevention and control at the Siteman Cancer Center. “It’s time we made an investment in implementing what we know.”

Colditz