Several cancers can be prevented by;
- Diet modification
- Life style modification
- Avoiding exposures of carcinogens
Levels of Prevention;
Primordial Prevention – It entails establishing or maintaining conditions that will minimize health hazards.
Primary prevention – Prevent the disease well before it develops.
The aim is to prevent the onset of specific diseases, risk reduction and, decrease the number of new cases.
Secondary Prevention – It entails early stage detection of the disease, which prompts interventions, therefore treatment becomes easier and more effective, hence, greater chances of recovery.
The most effective secondary prevention method for cancer is Screening.
The National Government of Kenya has developed guidelines meant to standardize cancer screening, provide operational protocols, and improve outcomes of cancer screening and treatment.
Tertiary Prevention – It involves the treatment of the established disease to prevent a relapse using established therapies e.g. Chemotherapy.
Chemoprevention.
Use of natural compounds, in pharmacologic doses, to reduce the risk of development or recurrence of cancer using physiological mechanisms that do not kill healthy cells.
A chemo-preventive program identifies and accesses specific chemical substances, many naturally occurring in foods, with the potential to prevent cancer initiation and to either slow or reverse the progression of premalignant lesions to invasive cancer.
An ideal chemo-preventive agent should have;
- Little or no toxic effects.
- High efficacy against multiple sites.
- Capability of oral administration.
- A known mechanism of action.
- Human acceptance.
Mechanism,
- Blocking agents: e.g. flavonoids prevent carcinogenic compounds from reaching or reacting with critical target sites by enhancing detoxification systems and by trapping reactive carcinogens.
- Suppressing agents e.g. vitamin D and related compounds, vitamin A, retinoids, calcium etc. prevent the evolution of the abnormal growth of tissue in cells that would otherwise become malignant.
Dietary Chemo-preventive agents can prevent or reverse cancer through;
- Changing global DNA methylation.
- Expressing tumor suppressor genes.
- Regulating the chemically modification involved in gene regulation.