Cancer prevention -- the potential for diet to modulate molecular signalling.

As our understanding of the development of cancer and the complex signalling mechanisms involved improves, we are beginning to appreciate the enormous potential for intervention strategies that prevent or slow down the disease process. Although much research is currently aimed at developing drugs to target key molecules in tumour cells that are responsible for their proliferation and survival, dietary constituents also have potential as anti-cancer agents. Our goal should be not only to identify carcinogenic changes as early as possible and to intervene effectively long before life-threatening tumours develop, but also to understand how a balanced, healthy diet can contribute to reduced incidence, as epidemiology so tantalizingly suggests.