Letters to the Editor.
An Ounce of Prevention
While the cover of the Fall 2006 Endeavors magazine gave a promise into new insights on addiction and cancer, and the title, Cancer and Addiction in the Year 2050, suggested that in another forty-four years, we could expect substantial in-roads into cancer reduction through addiction research, the truth of the matter is that: 1) the major research has already been done, and we know the answer already; and 2) the gains to be made in prevention have and will dwarf the gains to be made in treatment for the next four decades. What is most remarkable is that the article ignored the fact that tobacco addiction is responsible for more cancer deaths than any other cancer, and it kills more people in North Carolina and the United States annually than alcohol, motor vehicle crashes, suicides, illegal drugs, and homicides combined.
Tobacco addiction is the one cause of cancer for which truly effective treatment paradigms exist now — prevention and advocacy — policy measures to raise tobacco excise taxes, regulatory measures to promote clean indoor air free of secondhand smoke, education and promotion of 1-800-QUITNOW quitlines to help those addicted quit, and much more. What is simply missing is the political resolve and moral leadership to do what needs to be done. Endeavors readers deserve to hear this unequivocal message now, because in forty-four years, over 400,000 North Carolinians will have died from preventable cancers of the lung, larynx, mouth and esophagus. It is up to each and everyone of us to intervene.
—Adam O. Goldstein, MD, MPH
Goldstein is associate professor of family medicine at UNC and the director of Carolina's Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program.
