Preventing Cancer

Description

Each year countless thousands of people around the world are subjected to the suffering and risk of death that cancer causes. Cancer has now become the primary cause of death in the majority of industrialised countries. We place all our hopes in the discovery of new drugs or even more effective treatments but to some extent we remain passive in the face of cancer, seeing it as a cruel hand dealt by fate. But medical science has shown us that we can take more control of the prevention and treatment of this scourge. In the largest study conducted to date, the World Cancer Research Fund recently laid the groundwork for a global approach to cancer prevention, summarized in 10 major lifestyle recommendations which, taken together, can significantly reduce the incidence of cancer. The potential of this approach is remarkable: it is estimated that applying these principles could make it possible to eliminate approximately 75% of the four principal types of cancer now affecting the population (lung, colon, breast and prostate). Dr Richard Beliveau and Dr Denis Gingras have for the first time in book form brought together the sum of current knowledge of the connection between lifestyle and cancer. Written without jargon for a non-medical audience, Preventing Cancer aims to be an indispensable tool to remind the general public and the medical community of the importance of the old proverb: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Author description

RICHARD BELIVEAU, a leading authority in the field of cancer research, completed post-doctoral studies at Cornell University after obtaining a PhD in biochemistry from Universite Lavel in Quebec, Canada. He holds the Chair in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer at the University of Quebec at Montreal, where is he is a professor in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. Dr Beliveau is the director of the Molecular Medicine Laboratory of UQAM-Sainte-Justine Hospital (Centre de cancerologie Charles-Bruneau). Frequently called on to talk about his research, he is a regular commentator on local and national radio and television programs. DENIS GINGRAS is a researcher in the Molecular Medicine Laboratory of UQAM-Sainte-Justine Hospital (Centre de cancerologie Charles-Bruneau) and the University of Quebec at Montreal.