Lorenzo Tomatis and primary prevention of environmental cancer

The leading 20(th) century proponent for primary prevention of environmental cancer was Dr. Lorenzo Tomatis, the former Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and founder of the IARC Monographs program. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Tomatis – eminent scientist, scholar, teacher, humanitarian, and public health champion - and includes many perspectives that he promoted throughout his career, with original quotations from some of his scientific writings on primary prevention of environmental cancer. Any attempt by us to simply summarize his views would only detract from the power and logic of his language. “Cancer still remains a mainly lethal disease. Primary prevention remains the most relevant approach to reduce mortality through a reduction in incidence”[1].