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Fulfilling the Potential of Cancer Prevention and Early Detection

June 8th, 2009

This ebook contain information that give on Fulfilling the Potential of Cancer Prevention and Early Detection symposium by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

Sample

Dr. Tim Byers: I’m going to hit the high points of the discussion of the tobacco and obesity group and then ask a couple of specific questions for some final discussion. The group felt that we’re not serious about public health education in either tobacco or nutrition, given the size of the budgets for the efforts that we need. It’s said that nutrition education doesn’t work. Well, we have never really tried it, so maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. To adequately fund marketing of a new product, we spend tens and tens of millions of dollars. To adequately fund nutrition, or tobacco education for that matter, it is going to be at least that much. So, that was an important point. Along those lines, we were urged, even during an economic downturn for public support for things like this, to continue to be very assertive and not apologetic about advocating for resources in these areas.

Another comment was that there is really not a single entity or organization empowered or resourced to do the job of primary prevention for tobacco and obesity and improved nutrition. There are scattered resources across disease specific centers and Institutes in the government. Different agencies have missions, either overlapping or not, leaving gaps between them. That is a problem that we allude to in the report, and that is a problem that I’d like to ask a pointed question about. Those of you who are at NCI and those of you who are at CDC, is there a hole between these two agencies when it comes to getting the job done on tobacco control and nutrition?

Dr. Peter Greenwald: I don’t think there is a hole between the agencies. Some people say NCI does research, and CDC does applications, but I don’t feel that way. I feel that if NCI doesn’t do some applications for NIH, we don’t keep our eye on the ball, and if CDC doesn’t do some research, they are behind the times, so we both have to do both. But one does more of one than the other. The problem in nutrition is what you pointed out first; there is not a serious intensive effort where the resource allocation is anywhere near the level needed to address the obesity and physical activity problem. There is individual variability, there is a lot of interest in bioactive food compounds, and there are a lot of other things besides obesity and fitness that fall under nutrition. So, it is a matter of the scope of the effort that is not up to the scope of the problem.

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