10May18: Preinvasive cancer, update

I received this response to my prior post about Preinvasive Cancer, see https://natpernickhealth.blogspot.com/2018/:

Thanks Nat. What can you say about the implications of these ideas for treatment of cancer?

This was my response: 

Better understanding of how cancer arises suggests new treatment options. When I was a pathology resident (1995-2000), there was no known precursor lesion for ovarian cancer. Subsequently, by studying BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, it was discovered that there is a premalignant condition, but in the fallopian tubes (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22706539), suggesting that their removal (salpingectomy) may reduce ovarian cancer risk (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25628372). Similarly, identifying precursors for glioblastoma may suggest new therapies to prevent or treat this devastating disease.