As we honor Cancer Prevention Awareness Month, what do you feel is the most important message to share with our community?
A large proportion of cancer can be prevented through behavior and lifestyle choices, such as maintaining a healthy weight, regularly exercising, and staying away from smoking. Vaccination against human papillomavirus can also help prevent certain types of cancer. A common challenge that we encounter in preventive effort is that the benefit is often not visible, as nothing happens if we succeeded in prevention. It would be helpful for all of us, including cancer researchers and physicians, to get the message out.
Cancer prevention is one of the key priorities following the NCI’s 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act. How can we prioritize cancer prevention in our daily lives?
Many of the risk factors for cancer are modifiable, such as obesity, physical inactivity, and smoking. It is important to note that these factors also increase the risk of many other chronic conditions including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Despite advances in clinical care, prevention is still the best scenario. It would be ideal for us to avoid modifiable cancer risk factors to the extent possible. If cancer already becomes inevitable, early identification through screening can still help. As of right now, we have screening available for the four most common types of cancer in the United States – breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, and lung cancer. Each has specific guidelines, so please discuss cancer screening with your primary care physician the next time you have a physical exam.
How do you connect with clinicians treating patients to bridge laboratory research to clinical care?
We do so through prompt and regular dissemination, by sharing our results at conferences and publishing our work in peer-reviewed scientific journals. More recently, social media has also played a role in dissemination. I have seen colleagues share work via Twitter or other platforms, which tend to be followed by a broad audience. Personally, I have not sensed any barrier in communication.
Mentorship is an important part of cancer research—what is your favorite way to keep your team engaged and learning from one another?
We have regular meetings and more casual gatherings over coffee or lunch for everyone to share their research ideas and work in progress. My colleague Dr. Melinda Irwin and I lead an NCI-funded program that trains both predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows in cancer prevention and control. It is gratifying to have the opportunity to work alongside the next generation of cancer researchers who will carry the torch and do a great job.