Emerging Trends in Cancer Prevention Agent Development

Advances in omics and immunology over the past 20 years have revolutionized the approach to cancer prevention, with the goal now focused on identifying populations at higher risk for developing cancer in their lifetime as a result of either extensive exposure to environmental carcinogens or harboring precancer lesions or inherited genetic mutations that predispose them to specific types of cancer(s). Thus, the naïve idea that cancer could be “prevented” in the general population has evolved to a more practical approach based on the understanding that the target population for preventive agents will be individuals who already have alterations, in gene pathways, whether inherited or environmentally caused, and the goal will be to “intercept” these lesions at the earliest stages in the path from an initial genetic lesion to full-blown cancer. The Division of Cancer Prevention of the National Cancer Institute and the Office of Disease Prevention at the National Institutes of Health recently sponsored the second biennial “Translational Advances in Cancer Preventive Agent Development Meeting,” held virtually from September 7–9th. In this Meeting Report, we highlight the scientific sessions of this meeting that covered the most recent advances in preventive agent development that also highlighted these rapidly emerging trends in this research area.