Dr Peter Boyle (8 June 1951–23 July 2022)

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is saddened by the passing of Dr Peter Boyle at the age of 71.

Born and educated in Glasgow (Scotland), Dr Boyle joined IARC for the first time in 1981 as a one-year research fellow in the Unit of Descriptive Epidemiology. He returned to the Agency from 1986 to 1991 and was responsible for the SEARCH (Surveillance of Environmental Aspects Related to Cancer in Humans) programme, a network of international case–control studies investigating the etiological factors of cancer at several sites, in particular the pancreas, brain, breast, colon, and rectum.

After 11 years at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan (Italy), Dr Boyle was appointed IARC Director for the five-year term 2004–2008. During this period, Dr Boyle was confronted with a perennial structural issue for a moderately sized institution like IARC: the balance between epidemiological and experimental research. He made the decision (which was well aligned with the evolving frontier of cancer research) to close the animal housing facilities and shift the emphasis of laboratory-based research to epidemiological projects involving human biobank specimens.

During his tenure as IARC Director, Dr Boyle was very active on the international stage. He negotiated the accession to membership of four new IARC Participating States: Austria, India, Ireland, and the Republic of Korea. Another welcome event was the return of the Russian Federation as a Participating State (in place of the former Soviet Union), to guarantee adequate funding in a time of budgetary constraints and to increase the scope of scientific collaborations. Dr Boyle will be remembered for his commitment to expanding the role of IARC in cancer research for cancer prevention in the globalized world.

IARC conveys its deepest and heartfelt condolences to Dr Boyle’s family and friends.

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