onney AH.

Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, Department of
Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8020, USA.
aconney@rci.rutgers.edu

The present article, which is a tribute to the memory of Dr. Edward
Bresnick, emphasizes the importance of environmental and life-style
factors for cancer causation in the human population and points out
approaches to cancer prevention. These approaches include vaccinations
for the prevention of cancers that are caused by infectious agents as
well as the use of cancer chemopreventive agents. The use of tamoxifen
and letrozole to prevent breast cancer, finasteride to prevent prostate
cancer, sunscreens or topical applications of 5-fluorouracil to prevent
sunlight-induced skin cancer, and aspirin or calcium to prevent colon
cancer are a few examples of cancer chemoprevention in high risk
individuals and in the general population. An underdeveloped area of
cancer chemoprevention is the use of combinations of agents that work
by different mechanisms. It was pointed out that animal studies
indicate that many cancer chemopreventive agents inhibit carcinogenesis
under one set of experimental conditions but enhance carcinogenesis
under another set of experimental conditions. These observati