Richard Doll.

Sir Richard Doll, at 80, reflects on the achievements of his medical research career. He studied statistics at the London School of Hygiene, then, in 1948, was employed by Professor Bradford Hill at the Medical Research Council to look for the cause of the increase in mortality from lung cancer. Smoking was on the list of possible causes. At this time 8/10 men smoked including Doll himself. They interviewed large numbers of patients in 20 London hospitals. The exciting finding came from 'suspected' cases. When these cases were 'confirmed' it turned out that the smokers had lung cancer, but the non-smokers did not. The findings became quite clear in 9 months. The risk was directly proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked. Bradford Hill insisted Doll should check in other towns, and after a year the results were confirmed. They then studied 40,000 doctors to try to disprove the findings. Now, (1994) Doll is to publish a new book. Doll found his later work on radiation, in which he proved a correlation of size of radiation exposure to risk of cancer, to be his most rewarding work.