Chemoprophylaxis in Colorectal Cancer: Can Prevention be Better than Cure?

Abstract

Colorectal cancer continues to be a leading cause of death across the world, in spite of advances in detection and treatment. The concept of chemoprevention has come into the highlight once again, after almost four decades of arguments and counter arguments. At this point, we go back into the history of chemoprophylaxis, to look at the various modalities that were once promising and their current status in the literature. The agents used for chemoprophylaxis are many and hence we decided to classify them according to the level of evidence available. A literature search was performed with keywords including, but not exclusively “colorectal cancer”, “prevention”, “prophylaxis”, and “diet”. Studies were reviewed and only chemo-preventive agents were looked at in detail, though some dietary extracts and other factors of potential interest to a clinician have been noted. Though these agents are yet to be used in primary prevention of colorectal cancer, the evidence for some is overwhelming enough to require further investigation.