Cancer prevention research gets millions in new funding
Billions of dollars and research hours have been spent on diagnosing and treating cancer, but little of the same money or time has been spent on the prevention of cancer. In an effort to get at the root causes of cancer in the hopes of preventing cancer before it develops, the province of British Columbia will be providing $4 million dollars to the Canadian Cancer Society for research exclusively focused on cancer prevention. The research will be done at the University of British Columbia after an international search for an expert to lead the research can be found. Ultimately, the research will lead to a national cancer prevention strategy in relationship to diet, exercise, body weight, stress, and environmental carcinogens.

"To the best of our knowledge this is the first in primary cancer prevention, which is a very specific focus on not treating the disease better or detecting it earlier but actually understanding how we avoid ever getting there," stated Dr. Gavin Stuart, dean of medicine at the University of British Columbia. This is potentially exciting news, as prevention is my first choice in confronting and eliminating the epidemic levels of cancer we face today. It will be interesting to hear what the research finds in this new cancer prevention program.