Prevention
of Epithelial Cancer: The Challenge for the 21st Century
Dimitrios H. Roukos, MD, Michael Fatouros,
MD, Dimitrios Giannakis, MD, Ioannis Arampatzis, Evangelos Paraskevaidis,
MD, Nikolaos Sofikitis, MD and Niki J. Agnantis, MD, PhD
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Despite
apparent declines in incidence and overall mortality rates from
cancer,1 both remain at near all time highs.[2] These trends pale
in comparison with the dramatic declines for heart disease and
stroke. If current trends continue, cancer is expected to be the
leading cause of death in the United States (US) by 2010. A future
pandemic of new cancer cases in the USA could be resulted from
the aging of the population and the high proportion of new cases
in older persons (> 60 years).[3-5] The World Health Organization
estimates that worldwide the number of new cancer cases will be
increased from 9 million new cases annually now to 20 million
cancer cases annually by 2020 and cancer deaths from 5 million
to more than 10 million. Cancer prevention provides excited potential
to reduce incidence and cancer mortality. |