Cancer Prevention Think Tank December 8, 2006 NCI Frederick

• What are the best molecular targets for cancer prevention?
• Are there biomarkers that reliably predict the likelihood of cancer endpoints?
• Can molecularly targeted nutritional interventions be designed?
• What prevention studies should get high priority?

Recent discoveries in cancer cause and prevention have yielded new understanding of important molecular events that drive carcinogenesis and might be targeted for cancer prevention. Some of these events occur in cells that give rise to tumors while other events occur in the microenvironment. The blurring of the line between prevention and therapy presents opportunities to intervene at any stage. A challenge for the cancer prevention field concerns the need to run short predictive clinical trials rather than long expensive trials to cancer endpoints. Hence the increased interest in predictive biomarkers that can be assessed in serum or by imaging. The recent difficulties with COX-2 inhibitors remind us that even efficacious synthetic compounds may have limitations when used in doses high enough to show efficacy. This forum aims to identify and prioritize promising opportunities for high impact cancer prevention research. It further aims to enhance a collaborative response to these opportunities, within the Center for Cancer Research, and between the CCR and other NCI Divisions such as the Division of Cancer Therapeutics and Development and the Division of Cancer Prevention.

The questions noted above will provide focus to the upcoming Cancer Prevention Think Tank. The program will feature talks by two outside speakers Drs. Powel Brown and Monica Bertagnolli, by members of the CCR Laboratory of Cancer Prevention, by other CCR Principal Investigators and by DCP members. Two panels will address provocative questions and lively audience participation is anticipated.