Nearly 20 million new cancer cases are diagnosed across the world each year. By stressing that the majority of cancers can be prevented, Philip Landrigan focuses on the troubling consequences of pollution on individual, social, and planetary health. Since 1990, reduction has occurred in the traditional forms of pollution associated with deep poverty and in the numbers of deaths caused by these forms of pollution. But the modern forms of pollution–ambient air pollution and chemical pollution–are on the rise, as well as the numbers of deaths due to these forms of pollution. Moreover, the health consequences of pollution are inequitably distributed, with the most significant increases in cancer incidence and mortality occurring in low- and middle-income countries–i.e., the countries least capable of confronting the disease and least well able to afford costly therapies. Finally, the author suggests science-based strategies for pollution control and cancer prevention.