Melt the iceberg before it surfaces.
This was the message Michael Sporn, a Dartmouth College professor of medicine and University alum, championed during a presentation titled, “The Chemoprevention of Cancer: New Approaches and New Agents.”
Challenging existing practices in cancer therapy, Sporn is the main proponent in the study of chemoprevention – a term he coined in the early 1970s – which is based on using drugs, vitamins or alternative remedies to prevent or postpone the development of cancer. Sporn was one of the first to introduce the chemopreventive aspects of vitamin A.
Identifying carcinogenesis – the development of cancer – as the primary target, Sporn’s research is aimed at understanding cancer at a molecular level in hope that inhibitory compounds can be developed to destroy developing cells.
Sporn said that too much attention is being paid toward developing cytotoxic drugs to treat the end-stages of the disease.
“We need to stop worrying about a cure and work towards a prevention. For 30 years we have been racing for a cure and it hasn’t been very productive.”
Though not denouncing primary health care, Sporn said cancer research should have a stronger emphasis on suppressing carcinogenesis before it develops into invasive or metastatic cancer.
He added that even with the most advanced diagnostic techniques, often times when people find out they have cancer, the disease may already be in its end stages.
“With mammography, sometimes women find lesions that have already been present for 10 or 15 years.”
Sporn’s presentation was one of many delivered by prominent cancer researchers from around the nation who gathered yesterday to discuss their research at the Fall Cancer Research Symposium in the Towsley Center at University Hospital. Presentation topics ranged from clinical impacts of new research to advances in preventive care.
Following the presentations by guest lecturers, the work of postdoctoral and predoctoral research fellows was featured in a poster session.
The annual symposium drew more than 300 people.