Cancer Prevention Prevention may be the only way to change the social impact of cancer in the next 10 or 20 years. The problem is that prevention is not an easy idea to embrace. Effective prophylaxis prevention is not as attractive as it is advertised to be, and although prevention may be our only chance to change the course of cancer in the near future, the world is generally uninterested in prevention. As a society, we find the idea of high-tech treatments inspiring, while the idea of prevention pales in comparison. Nonetheless, there are some encouraging signs in the process of changing our attitudes. In Canada, smoking rates are trending downward among certain segments of society, and the idea of a low-fat, high-fiber diet is gradually beginning to gain traction. Some of the effective preventive measures that we have identified, or are relatively certain of, would significantly reduce the number of cancer cases each year if they were to be scaled up on a large scale.