Chemoprevention or chemoprophylaxis refers to the administration of a medication for the purpose of preventing disease or infection. Antibiotics, for example, may be administered to patients with disorders of immune system function to prevent bacterial infections (particularly opportunistic infection). This technique is called Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC). The charity evaluator GiveWell lists the Malaria Consortium's SMC program as one of its priority programs due to its high level of cost-effectiveness and ability to absorbe additional funding.
Cancer
Chemoprevention in cancer, was first proposed by Michael Sporn, seeks to identify ‘agents to reverse, suppress or prevent the carcinogenic process,’ from premalignancy to invasive and or metastatic cancer, by ‘using physiological mechanisms that do not kill healthy cells. Anand Reddi proposed a role for the antidiabetes drug metformin as a chemoprevention agent for skin cancer.
See also
- Prophylaxis, a more general term.
- Primary prevention, in which measures are undertaken to prevent the onset of disease in individuals who are susceptible (as when patients receive aspirin or statins to delay the development of coronary artery disease).