Targeting Policy: Implications and Recommendations for Cancer Prevention

The 2007 American Institute for Cancer Research/World Cancer Research Fund (AICR/WCRF) report provided updated recommendations for food intake, physical activity, and body weight to prevent the development of cancer, based on extensive systematic reviews of the relevant global literature. Higher rates of cancer occurrence imply higher exposure to environmental factors that cause cancer, for example, as occur in racial/ethnic minority populations in the United States and low socioeconomic strata in many countries. The 2009 AICR/WCRF report Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention includes a menu of 48 policy and action recommendations directed to multinational bodies, civil society organizations, governments, industries, media, schools, workplaces and institutions, health and other professionals, and people acting as citizens in their communities and on behalf not only of themselves but also their families and friends. Certain recommendations are especially important to ensure that high risk populations benefit equally or—to close gaps—disproportionately compared to populations at large: recommendations that relate to food advertising and other aspects of food marketing; those that relate to improving built environments, food options in public places, environmental justice, and taking a “health in all policies” approach; and those that aim to improve options for food and physical activity in schools and workplaces and support for breastfeeding. These policies, working in concert, can have a major impact in improving the cancer prevention possibilities of the socially and economically disadvantaged.