SCREENING AND CHEMOPREVENTION

Detection of cancer at an early stage, by screening asymptomatic perso ns who are at risk for cancer has the aim of decreasing the number of cancer-related deaths. In practice, there are no guidelines for cancer screening in older people and it is often neglected, since reduced li fe expectancy and competing causes of death are considered to reduce t he cost/effectiveness ratio of screening tests in the ageing. Over the last few years, several agents have been identified to have an anti-c arcinogenic activity in some types of cancers and are under investigat ion. The intent of a prevention programme for older persons should be to limit the morbidity from cancer, which may be achieved either by pr imary prevention or by curing early stage cancer.