Prof Sir Richard Peto

Studying smoking and cancer, and improving clinical trials

Eminent cancer researcher Professor Sir Richard Peto is co-director of the Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit in Oxford.

He is a leading figure in both the prevention and treatment of cancer, and helped to run a pioneering 50-year long study that furrher established the links between smoking and cancer. Professor Sir Peto's work with Professor Sir Richard Doll on smoking has influenced the health policies of governments across the world and helped save thousands of lives.

Tobacco research

Professor Peto’s landmark work on tobacco includes showing that half of all smokers die of their habit, but that stopping at any time helps to reduce their risk. He continues to study the effects of tobacco across the world in partnership with the World Health Organisation.

Improving clinical trials

Professor Peto has also improved the way in which scientists run and analyse clinical trials. His unit promotes international collaboration between scientists and runs some of the largest trials in the world. They are run 'mega-trials' of new treatments for different types of cancer, including leukaemia, breast cancer and bowel cancer.

He was also instrumental in developing a technique called 'meta-analysis', which combines the results of several different trials and provides an overall analysis of their results. By combining the data from trials of breast cancer treatments, he showed that women of all ages could benefit from treatment with the drug tamoxifen. The finding changed clinical practice, helping save thousands of women's lives every year.

The Unit is now running similar world-wide reviews of leukaemia, bowel cancer and prostate cancer trials.