Harvard Report on Cancer Prevention
Volume V: Fulfilling the Potential for Cancer Prevention: Policy Approaches

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Summary

We currently know enough about cancer causes and prevention to reduce cancer burden in the United States by over 50% in coming decades. To achieve such a significant reduction, however, we must reframe our current approach to cancer epidemiology and prevention. The weight of evidence on cancer and lifestyle factors is so great that it behooves a move toward action. It is no longer enough to simply identify behavioral risk factors or set goals for risk reductions. We must now focus on bringing about population-wide changes in lifestyle.

In this report, we outline a series of public policies that aim to make risk-reduction behaviors easier for individuals to choose and maintain. The policies focus on five major behavioral risk factors: tobacco use, physical inactivity, overweight, diet, and alcohol use. While other lifestyle factors also contribute to cancer incidence, this report focuses only on those factors that also impact the incidence of other major chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

We are currently at a crossroads of cancer prevention research. We have amassed volumes of epidemiologic data, and it is now time to put greater emphasis on applying what we know. With this is mind, the current challenge before the public health community is to develop prevention strategies so that individual behavior changes are reinforced by structural changes, and all components of the prevention agenda are moved forward in a coordinated and cohesive manner.