Cancer mortality nowadays remains unacceptably high despite immense advances in the understanding of the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, in bringing potent new drugs to the clinic and in treating several rare forms of cancer. Many scientists suggest that overall cancer mortality statistics are unlikely to change in a fundamental way until there has been a re-orientation of emphasis in cancer research that will direct greater resources towards prevention of disease development, rather that treatment of end-stage disease. Cancer chemoprevention represents a rather new rational approach in the management of cancer. Although the results of chemoprevention clinical trials will appear in the near future, the current preclinical and initial clinical published data outline the significant future perspective of cancer chemoprevention.