Noted

Tobacco companies began airing “corrective statements” to warn the public about the addictive nature of cigarettes and the many health problems smoking can cause. A federal court in 2006 mandated the new advertisements, which will appear in newspapers and on television, the companies' websites, and cigarette packaging for at least a year.

Eleven percent of people ages 20 to 64—and 25% of adults age 65 and over—diagnosed with cancer between 2009 and 2013 had cancer earlier in their lives, meaning that they are often excluded from clinical trials (JAMA Oncol 2017 Nov 22 [Epub ahead of print]). As the number of cancer survivors continues to grow, more and more patients could be prevented from participating in cancer research even though many respond differently to some anticancer treatments.

Experts recently outlined future cancer research priorities in the United States (Lancet Oncol 2017;18:e653–e706). For instance, they proposed constructing a Premalignant Cancer Atlas, noting that “the rate-limiting step in developing and implementing precision-based prevention approaches has been our limited understanding of precancer biology…in contrast with the extensive knowledge of advanced disease.”

Most patients with colorectal cancer are not being screened for a common genetic mutation, according to a study that examined compliance with DNA mismatch repair deficiency testing (JAMA Oncol 2017 Nov 9 [Epub ahead of print]). Researchers found that only 28% of adult patients who had colorectal cancer surgery, 43% of whom were ages 18 to 49, had their tumors tested. Testing is particularly important for these patients because they have a higher incidence of Lynch syndrome, which can cause subsequent cancers.

More than 45% of cancer deaths can be attributed to modifiable risk factors—smoking, excess weight, alcohol intake, poor diet, physical inactivity, ultraviolet radiation exposure, and infection with Helicobacter pylori or one of five cancer-associated viruses, such as human papillomavirus—according to a recent study, underscoring the potential of known preventive measures (CA Cancer J Clin 2017 Nov 21 [Epub ahead of print].)

For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://cancerdiscovery.aacrjournals.org/content/early/by/section.