Cancer risk assessment.

Increasing efforts to reduce the burden of cancer have brought into sharp relief the relevance of cancer risk assessment in preventing the occurrence and, when that is not possible, preventing the progression of the disease. Methods for estimating human cancer risk have evolved steadily over the past few decades as more has been learned about molecular, genetic, and biological aspects of cancer. These methods have been applied with increasing frequency in community-based approaches to reduce the risk of environmentally provoked cancers. At the same time, patients are showing increased interest in estimates of their likelihood of developing cancer during the next 10, 20, or 30 years. This interest is involving more physicians in human cancer risk assessment in clinical counseling settings.