Coming of Age — The Chemoprevention of Cancer

With the aging of the population and the continued fall in rates of mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer will emerge soon after the year 2000 with the dubious distinction of being the leading cause of death in the United States. Unfortunately, dramatic therapeutic successes in the treatment of cancer plateaued in the mid-1970s, and advances since have been incremental. Whether the remarkable progress in our understanding of the biologic and genetic underpinnings of normal and transformed cellular growth in the past 15 years will be translated into substantial therapeutic benefit remains to be demonstrated. Alternatives to therapy of late disease . . .