Doll, Sir Richard Shaboe

▪ 2006

      British epidemiologist (b. Oct. 28, 1912, Hampton, Middlesex, Eng.—d. July 24, 2005, Oxford, Eng.), with his colleague Austin (later Sir Austin) Bradford Hill, definitively established the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. In 1947 Doll, who was already known for a study on the causes of peptic ulcers, was asked to look into the alarming increase in lung cancer in Great Britain. Environmental causes related to the rapid increase in car ownership were suspected, but Doll, a smoker, found to his surprise that smoking was by far the dominant factor. The results were so clear that he gave up smoking himself during the study. The report, co-written with Bradford Hill, was published in 1950. Doll framed additional studies that clarified the relationship between smoking and disease. Some of his research proved that there was no link between peptic ulcers and diet and that even low-level radiation could cause cancer. Doll, the Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford from 1969, won many awards, notably the UN Award for Cancer Research in 1962. He was knighted in 1971 and made a Companion of Honour in 1996.

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