C&IH Congratulates Epidemiologist Julian Peto With His 80th Birthday

C&IH would like to recognize Professor Julian Peto, FMedSci, FRS, a renowned epidemiologist with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, on his 80^th birthday.

Professor Peto provided significant contributions to the studies of carcinogenicity related to various environmental and occupational health factors. The so called “Peto model” that he developed in the 1980s remains a hallmark of mesothelioma risk assessment for various mineral types of fibers. Professor Peto was the principal investigator of a well-known case-control study on mesothelioma in Great Britain related to the lung burden of asbestos fibers that became one of the long-standing demonstrations of the power of cancer epidemiology in complex exposure setting, and also confirmed the significant difference between various mineral types of fibers in mesothelioma causation.

Professor Peto showed that the contribution of genetic susceptibility to common cancers had been greatly underestimated. During his tenure as Cancer Research UK Chair of Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research from 1983 to 2010 he initiated several studies on cancer genetics, contributing to the discovery of BRCA2 and early work on polygenic cancer susceptibility.

He also established early studies on HPV infection and cervical cancer risk. Since moving to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine his main interest has been how HPV testing, which is replacing cytology in cervical screening, should be implemented within the NHS and also in low and middle-income countries with more limited resources.

Professor Peto was also very active in the development of public health protection measures during the COVID pandemic and helped to introduce scientific principles in the complicated area of disease monitoring and risk management.

C&IH scientists have organized several events for various scientific conferences where Professor Peto was a speaker, and our team was honored to collaborate with him on multiple occasions over recent decades. A chapter in the recent book “Health Risk Assessment for Asbestos and Other Fibrous Minerals” prepared by C&IH was dedicated to the Peto model and its applications to advanced risk assessment methodology.

We wish Julian all the best with his scientific endeavors, as well as good health for many years to come. We are sure that the voice of Professor Peto, with his scientific integrity and independence of opinion, will be heard widely and serve as an example for generations to come.

Julian Peto is recognized as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences on the Royal Society website.