How did you get interested in cancer prevention by dietary phytochemicals?
A. I’ve always been very interested in the effect of environmental chemicals on health, going back to my undergraduate days at Reed College in Portland. We had to do an undergraduate thesis, and it was not long after Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” had come out on the effect of insecticides on wildlife. That got me really interested in environmental chemicals and inspired my thesis. As my career developed I came to realize a couple of things: many of our environmental exposures are through food (what we eat and drink) and that one of the most exciting approaches is a potential for prevention of diseases related to food-borne toxic chemicals. That’s what got me started in the whole area. Q. How do you study cancer prevention by dietary phytochemicals? A. You have to use a model. It’s very difficult to design and undertake large prospective studies with humans where you provide a dietary phytochemical and then follow them for many years. That’s very expensive, involves a large numbe
