Lung cancer chemoprevention: current status and future directions

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the world. In the United States, lung cancer causes more death per annum than colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers combined. While smoking prevention and cessation are essential strategies against lung cancer, they are often ineffective, and former smokers remain at lower, yet persistent risks. The magnitude of the tobacco epidemic and burden of lung cancer will continue to escalate globally, underscoring the importance of advancing chemoprevention research. Recently, exciting results from phase 2b randomized control trials are beginning to emerge. Advancements in understanding clinical tumor biology, diagnostic technology, and bioinformatics will continue to propel significant progress in the field. This update will provide a general overview of the background and rationale for lung cancer chemoprevention, review important results from historical trials, summarize key findings from recently completed studies, and discuss ongoing clinical trials and future directions for lung cancer chemoprevention. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.