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From the editors

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 6, page 1 (2006)Cite this article

If you were to ask your peers what the greatest contributions to cancer research are, you would probably receive a list of cellular and molecular milestones. Epidemiology-based discoveries are often overlooked, but profound discoveries in this mathematically based discipline have significantly shaped the ethos of cancer research today.

One of the great contributors to cancer epidemiology was Sir Richard Doll, who died last year. The study of Doll and Austin Bradford Hill in 1950 suggested a link between smoking and cancer, which was later confirmed in their 1954 publication. When these results were reported, 80% of British adults smoked; today that figure is 26%. These findings and the subsequent backlash against smoking has saved many lives in the Western world.

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From the editors. Nat Rev Cancer 6, 1 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1797

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