The Ohio State University
Presentation Abstract
Improving Cancer Outcomes Through Nutrition: Learning from the Past and Shaping the Future
Few disciplines have contributed more to public health and disease prevention than nutritional sciences. The global impact of nutrient discovery, defining requirements, and implementation of strategies providing optimal nutrition to diverse populations through improved agricultural methods, food processing and distribution, fortification, and government guidelines are extraordinary accomplishments. Yet, continued efforts are required to fulfill the public health promise that emerging scientific knowledge provides. Biomedical science has rapidly progressed through the genomics era, and our ability to apply new tools to better understand individual risks of disease and provide highly personalized disease prevention and therapy is the future. Cancer remains a major blight for humanity. Our knowledge regarding diet and nutrition in cancer etiology is significant, yet implementation of preventive strategies for populations as well as individuals is still the challenge. Cancer therapeutics continue to expand and improve outcomes, yet at great cost to society, through the development of novel surgical and radiotherapy technology coupled with targeted systemic agents and immunotherapeutics. Cancer therapy is increasingly personalized and based upon the principle that “each cancer is unique.” In comparison, our knowledge about nutrition, body composition, and fitness as critical modulators of therapeutic efficacy and improved responses is strikingly lacking. Novel therapies and their combinations are also associated with a broader array of short- and long-term toxicities that affect survivorship. Unfortunately, precision nutrition research is lagging behind, and it is imperative to invest in efforts to reduce individual toxicity during aggressive multidisciplinary care so as to improve outcomes. Of equal importance, a greater proportion of cancer patients are surviving their malignancy, with expectations of longevity. Developing standards for personalized nutritional interventions to reduce long-term morbidity and mortality resulting from cancer therapy while promoting resiliency and health must be a priority. Enhanced knowledge in precision nutrition across the spectrum of the cancer course is imperative. Yet knowledge also requires implementation strategies, and systemic barriers to the application of nutrition knowledge for the benefit of patients must also be addressed within the health care system. History suggests that such investments have the potential to provide substantial reductions in morbidity and mortality from cancer while lowering societal health care costs.
About Dr. Clinton
Dr. Steven K. Clinton, M.D., Ph.D. holds the Robert A. and Martha O. Schoenlaub Cancer Research Chair as Professor of Medical Oncology in the Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University. He serves The James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State as Director of the multidisciplinary Prostate and Genitourinary Oncology Clinical Program. Dr. Clinton is the Program Leader for Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention (MCC), which is one of five research programs of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC). The focus of the MCC program, involving over 50 faculty, is elucidating the fundamental mechanisms underlying the development of cancer and defining prevention strategies. A major strength of the program is the “crops to the clinic” research agenda that integrates the efforts of scientists in agriculture, food science, and nutrition with clinical investigators to conduct novel human clinical trials at The James. Most recently, he is serving the University’s Discovery Theme (Foods for Health) effort to build a campus-wide program focusing upon nutritional metabolomics and personalized medicine. Dr. Clinton’s training for his M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was followed by an internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Chicago. He proceeded with medical oncology training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he remained on faculty for a decade prior to joining The Ohio State University. Education remains one of his passions, and Dr. Clinton is highly regarded as a teacher and mentor to junior faculty, fellows, and students, with dozens supported by National Institutes of Health, United States Department of Agriculture, and Approved Clinical Supervisor training awards. Dr. Clinton’s research activities focus on many aspects of diet, nutrition, and cancer, ranging from epidemiology and clinical intervention trials, as well as basic laboratory studies of cellular and molecular biology resulting in over 350 scientific publications, reviews/reports, and book chapters. Dr. Clinton provides service to many national and international organizations involved in the war on cancer. He has served for over a decade on the World Cancer Research Foundation Advisory Committee to define cancer prevention strategies involving diet, nutrition, and physical activity. Dr. Clinton also served on the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for America Committee as well as the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences Committee to Review Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin D and Calcium.
Dr. Clinton did not disclose any conflicts of interest for this workshop.