Chemoprevention articles from across Nature Portfolio

Seasonal malaria chemoprevention provides substantial benefit for young children, but resistance to used drugs will likely develop. Here, Chotsiri et al. evaluate the use of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine as a regimen in 179 children, and population-based simulations suggest that small children would benefit from a higher and extended dosage.

A number of breast lesions that are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and/or represent true precursors of breast tumours are increasingly detected in population screening programmes. At present, the clinicopathological and molecular characteristics that defined the risk of breast cancer in women with these lesions are unknown; nevertheless, management strategies ranging from active surveillance to surgery with adjuvant radiotherapy and endocrine therapy can be planned based on the risk of breast cancer at the population level. Herein, the contemporary approaches to the diagnosis and management of high-risk breast lesions are comprehensively reviewed.

Chemoprevention for patients with Barrett’s oesophagus remains a controversial topic. Results of the first randomized trial of chemoprevention using a proton pump inhibitor with or without aspirin were recently reported. We highlight strengths and weaknesses in the design of the trial and discuss the clinical implications of the findings.

Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy is effective in preventing gastric cancer, even in patients with advanced pre-neoplastic lesions (gastric atrophy and/or intestinal metaplasia). We must now focus on how to accomplish the goal of eliminating gastric cancer-related death worldwide; strategies for screening and treatment of gastric neoplasia (primary prevention) and post-treatment surveillance (secondary prevention) are discussed herein.