EDITORIAL Invigorating Cancer Prevention: Proposing Core Competencies in Cancer Prevention Research Training

# The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Successes in cancer prevention research over the past 60 years have altered clinical care and had broad implications for public health. Notable examples include the development of chemopreventive agents (e.g., tamoxifen reducing breast cancer risk), vaccines against infectious agents known to cause cancer (hepatitis B and human papillomavirus), screening and early detection targeting groups at higher risk (colonoscopy for ages 50 and older), and recommendations for lifestyle modifications, some of which have also been accompanied by policy efforts (smoking cessation programs and bans on smoking in public places).[1, 2] Yet despite these laudable advances, there is a pervasive sense among both the public and those in the field that “we should be further along in preventing cancer. ” This rigorous scienc