A Call For More Research On Cancer's Environmental Triggers

"We already know how to stop many cancers before they start, scientists say. But there's a lot more work to be done."

"'Around half of cancers could be prevented,' said Christopher Wild in the opening session of an international scientific meeting on cancer's environmental causes held in June. Wild is the former director of the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer."

"'Cancer biology and treatment is where most of the money goes,' he said, but prevention warrants greater attention. 'I'm not saying that we shouldn't work to improve treatment, but we haven't balanced it properly.'"

"Perhaps no question about cancer is more contentious than its causes. People wonder, and scientists debate, if most malignancies stem from random DNA mutations and other chance events or from exposure to carcinogens, or from behaviors that might be avoided."

At the conference in Charlotte, N.C., scientists pressed for a reassessment of the role of environmental exposures by applying modern molecular techniques to toxicology. They called for more aggressive collection of examples of human pathology and environmental samples, including water and air, so that cellular responses to chemicals can be elucidated.