I am pleased to be selected as the new President of the International Society of Cancer Chemoprevention.  I have long been an advocate of the philosophy that “the best treatment of cancer is its prevention.”  Although I have been involved in this field for over 20 years, my sense is that we are just emerging from its infancy and are at a historical time point similar to cancer chemotherapy in the early 60’s and cardiovascular prevention in the 70’s.  The first glimmer that chemoprevention might work in humans is still young, and although “proof of principle” has been demonstrated in several different settings, we have a long way to go before we can say that we have an effective drug that has little or no toxicity.  The remarkable increase in our understanding of the basic mechanisms of carcinogenesis in the past decade should lead also to agents that are more specific and less toxic.  The rapid rise in interest in cancer chemoprevention around the world in the past five to seven years has been enlightening, and hopefully, ISCaC can be a positive force in channeling our efforts in chemoprevention to successful outcomes.  

Dr. Frank L. Meyskens

Dr. Meyskens has been involved in chemoprevention research for over 20 years and is generally recognized as one of its leaders.  His initial interest started at the Arizona Cancer Center in the late 1970’s beginning with the studies of retinoids as therapeutic and then prevention agents with an emphasis on skin and cervical cancers.  He also developed a program in colon cancer prevention with an emphasis on fiber as the prevention agent.  After the departure of Dr. Meyskens to the University of California Irvine to start a new Cancer Center, both of these programs have continued under the direction of Dr. David Alberts, now a leader in the field.  While in Arizona, Dr. Meyskens recruited many junior colleagues into the field, most notably Gary Goodman (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Research Center) and Scott Lipman (MD Anderson) who both currently head up major prevention efforts.  Dr. Meyskens has also had an important influence at the national and international level:  he was founding chair of the Cancer Control Research Committee of both SWOG (1987-1997) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (1986-1990), both of which have continued to provide an important national influence on cancer control and prevention research.  Many new junior and senior colleagues were recruited to the cancer prevention and control effort through these committees.  Dr. Meyskens has also been active in the American Association of Cancer Research, in promoting etiologic and chemoprevention research.

While at the University of California Irvine, he has completed definitive phase IIa and IIb trials of DFMO in colon cancer prevention and Phase I and Phase II trials of BBIC in oral leukoplakia.  Additionally, he has continued his studies of basic cellular and molecular mechanisms in human melancyte/melanoma transformation and is currently focused on the role of redox regulated transcription factors.  He has published over 250 papers and has been continuously funded by the NCI since 1978.  Dr. Meyskens is Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry and Director of NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California Irvine.