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"Most of us know someone who has battled cancer; if you&amp;#39;ve watched a loved one go through it, then you&amp;#39;ve seen the fight at close range. And let&amp;#39;s be frank: It ain&amp;#39;t pretty. Treatment often involves are body-altering surgeries, bone-wearying radiation, and chemotherapy so poisonous that it seems worse than the disease itself. To quote a bumper sticker, Cancer Sucks.\nIn her bold new book out this week, Margaret Cuomo, M.D., a radiologist and formerly an attending physician in diagnostic radiology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, asks us why we settle for this slash-burn-poison approach to cancer, and why all of us seem to have given up on searching for a real end to cancer. Dr. Cuomo provided great insight for our special report on breast cancer, so I wanted to talk to her about her research for A World Without Cancer: The Making of a New Cure and the Real Promise of Prevention, and some of the radical changes she wants scientists, policy makers, advocates and even patients to make. Listen in.\nPinterestFacebook__GLAMOUR:__It&amp;#39;s a bombshell statement to say that we&amp;#39;ve basically given up looking for a cure for cancer. Do you see it that way?\nMARGARET CUOMO, M.D.: We have lost our urgency and sense of outrage. Sadly, talking about new treatments or the idea of living with cancer&amp;#39; is our new normal. For example, when a woman is told she has tested positive for the breast cancer gene BRCA and asks what are her options, she&amp;#39;s told a prophylactic mastectomy. But let&amp;#39;s think about that&amp;#8212;that&amp;#39;s a brutal approach. We&amp;#39;re in the 21st century! Yet we have become used to accepting this as the best we can do. I know we can do better.&amp;quot;\nGLAMOUR: In 1971, President Nixon signed the &amp;quot;war on cancer&amp;quot; act, with the goal of eradicating cancer, making cancer the small pox or polio of its time. Why have we drifted away from that goal?\nMARGARET CUOMO, M.D.: We&amp;#39;ve learned there is not just one cancer, as originally thought&amp;#8212;there are 100 to 200 types, probably more. Finding a cure for each disease is incredibly difficult. But they have commonalities&amp;#8212;what is preventable for one is preventable in another. That&amp;#39;s why we have to focus on prevention&amp;#8212;not only to save lives, but to save resources. What we are doing now is unsustainable.\n__GLAMOUR:__What can women do to help prevent cancer, to protect their own health?\nMARGARET CUOMO, M.D.: The evidence is simple and clear and powerful: We must pay attention to diet, we must exercise, limit alcohol, end smoking, and take Vitamin D. In addition to that, we should be aware of and try to avoid a host of environmental products that are within our control, including toxins in personal care products and things like dry cleaning solvents and BPA in plastics.\nPeople often ask me, What is the most important thing I can do? Is it diet? Exercise? The truth is it&amp;#39;s like listening to the music of an orchestra: These are all things that contribute to the beautiful sound. It&amp;#39;s not the same if you choose just one.\n__GLAMOUR:__Women may not get all this information from their doctors&amp;#8212;a lot of it isn&amp;#39;t even taught in medical school.\nMARGARET CUOMO, M.D.: I had one class on nutrition in four years in med school! But the truth is that whatever will help prevent cancer will help prevent diabetes, heart disease and a host of diseases. No one is mandating that schools need to change their curricula. So you have to inform yourself.\n__GLAMOUR:__Should we be demanding better leadership from our health officials?\nMARGARET CUOMO, M.D.: Yes&amp;#8212;and more accountability. Where is the annual report to the nation on the status of cancer in this country? Who is reporting to the President and Congress? Right now, what we learn we learn from daily headlines. The nation deserves more accountability on our progress. We need a partnership between the President and Congress and all the agencies devoted to cancer. Look at other successful initiatives that did the unthinkable, putting man on the moon, for example. That would not have happened&amp;#8212;and ahead of schedule&amp;#8212;without the very clear strong partnership between the President, Congress, and NASA. We don&amp;#39;t have that collaborative spirit right now. Cancer is nonpartisan. It knows no party lines.\nGLAMOUR: Speaking of politics, your brother Andrew is the governor of New York, a post your father once held. Your sister runs one of the country&amp;#39;s most powerful charities, Help USA. What was in the water at your house growing up?\nMARGARET CUOMO, M.D.: My parents have five children, and they set a standard of excellence of always thinking about the greater good and what you can do to help others. That is a powerful and unusual role model, and we are very fortunate to have had that. My parents were children of immigrants, so we were always aware of our blessings, and learned to take nothing for granted. We must all try to do that.\nDo you think the President and Congress are doing enough to end cancer? Have you taken steps to lower your risk?\nNow that we&amp;#39;re talking about lowering your risk, you can take these four easy steps to lower your risk in your 20s and 30s right now. Then, read our breast cancer special from our October 2012 issue: 7 Things No One Ever Tells You About Breast Cancer."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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