Dr Jacques Estève

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is saddened by the passing of Dr Jacques Estève, who died on 20 February 2022.

Dr Estève joined IARC in 1977 and became the Head of the Unit of Biostatistics Research and Informatics. He was a remarkable mathematician and described new methods to calculate cancer survival and to estimate national cancer incidence rates using national and regional cancer mortality data. His methods were long used by French authorities and are still used by IARC scientists today to compute the global cancer incidence data available on the Global Cancer Observatory website.

Dr Estève edited or made important contributions to many IARC Scientific Publications, perhaps most notably Scientific Publications No. 121 (Trends in Cancer Incidence and Mortality), No. 128 (Statistical Methods in Cancer Research Volume IV: Descriptive Epidemiology), and No. 132 (Survival of Cancer Patients in Europe: The EUROCARE Study). Dr Estève retired from IARC in 1997.

IARC staff and collaborators join with Dr Estève’s family and friends in mourning his death. His former colleagues describe Dr Estève as a patient, tolerant, diplomatic, and extremely positive man, as someone who was able to unite and inspire people from different specialities to work together towards a common goal, and as a someone who was humble in his genius. He will be greatly missed.