An Integrated Cancer Prevention Strategy: the Viewpoint of the Leon Berard Comprehensive Cancer Center Lyon, France

Abstract

This article describes some of the key prevention services in the Leon Berard Comprehensive Cancer Center (CLB) Lyon, France, which are based on clinical prevention services, outreach activities, and collaboration with professional and territorial health communities. In addition, research is embedded at all stages of the prevention continuum, from understanding cancer causes through to the implementation of prevention interventions during and after cancer. Health promotion activities in the community and dedicated outpatient primary cancer prevention services for individuals at increased risk have been implemented. The CLB's experience illustrates how prevention can be integrated into the comprehensive mission of cancer centers, and how in turn, the cancer centers may contribute to bridging the current fragmentation between cancer care and the different components of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. With increasing cancer incidence, the shift toward integrated prevention-centered cancer care is not only key for improving population health, but this may also provide a response to the shortage of hospital staff and overcrowding in cancer services, as well as offer opportunities to reduce carbon emissions from cancer care.

Figure 1.

CLB's comprehensive cancer prevention strategy. The figure illustrates the CLB's comprehensive cancer prevention strategy encompassing health promotion, targeted primary prevention, cancer screening and tertiary prevention, grounded in evidence-based practices, outreach activities, clinical prevention services, participatory methods and collaboration, as well as cross-disciplinary research.