Carcinogenesis Advance Access originally published online on January 3, 2008
Carcinogenesis 2008 29(5):889; doi:10.1093/carcin/bgm273
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An appreciation of Lorenzo Tomatis by a friend and colleague
My first contact with Lorenzo Tomatis was not as a scientist but as a writer, when in 1965 he published the book ‘Il Laboratorio’, describing his frustration working in a research and academic environment in Italy that motivated his decision not to go back to his home country but to stay in the USA. This lead to a successful and outstanding career in cancer research, firstly in Chicago and then in Lyon (France). While working in the laboratory of Dr Philippe Shubik in Chicago he became interested in chemical carcinogenesis and in particular he produced the original observation of an increased risk of cancer in mice in the offspring of mothers exposed to chemical carcinogens. During this period, his conviction matured that primary prevention of cancer was the underlining theme and the goal for all his future research. This motivation was a determinant in his decision to move to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon in 1967 to become Chief of the Unit of Chemical Carcinogenesis. In 1982, he became Director of the Agency, succeeding John Higginson, the first Director of the Agency. He foresaw in this newly formed World Health Organization institution a place where he could develop and implement his ideas on cancer prevention.
This was a very interesting and exciting time for the Agency, devoted to the development of programmes and recruitment of staff. The overall goal of the Agency was to integrate cancer epidemiology and basic (laboratory) research with the objectives of assessing cancer incidences and their variations worldwide and understanding, with the integration of laboratory science (molecular epidemiology), the aetiopathogenesis of various types of cancers. This approach was very attractive to epidemiologists and laboratory scientists and resulted in the recruitment of staff who were successful in implementing molecular epidemiological studies in parallel with more traditional cancer epidemiological studies and cancer registries. During this time, and later as a Director, he gave priority to the recruitment of high-quality staff and was able to implement programmes that were, and still are, recognized by the international scientific cancer community. In addition to the establishment at the Agency of cancer research laboratories therefore, Lorenzo Tomatis was directly responsible for the initiation and implementation of some major research projects. One of these, the ‘IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risk to Humans’, begun in the late sixties was, and still is, a major programme of the IARC. It was something he particularly valued and he continued to keep a critical eye on it even after his retirement from the Agency.
He was also interested in cancer in developing countries. Under his Directorship, two major projects were initiated on the role of viruses in human cancers. One is The Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study, which aims to assess the efficacy of hepatitis B virus vaccination in the prevention of chronic liver diseases and the role of other risk factors, namely aflatoxins and hepatitis C virus infection in hepatocellular carcinoma. The other project concerns epidemiological studies on the role of human papilloma virus in the aetiology of cervical cancer.
Another major project initiated under his Directorship was the prospective study on nutrition and cancer involving thousands of individuals from many European countries. Other activities which he supported were cancer epidemiology and cancer registries and the IARC Fellowship Programme.
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The initiation and support of these various projects shows the broad interest of Lorenzo Tomatis in cancer research and underlines the importance he always gave to primary cancer prevention as the most effective approach to reduce cancer mortality worldwide. The implementation of these ideas was, and remains, not always easy and he was able to overcome, with great determination, the difficulties encountered among the scientific communities and elsewhere in this respect.
I would like to end this short script on a more personal note. My own scientific career is intermingled with that of Lorenzo Tomatis. We attended the same University and the same Department of Morbid Anatomy in Torino. I met him for the first time in Chicago and we worked together when I joined his unit at the IARC in 1972. Our friendship lasted throughout. After his retirement, we met frequently and naturally discussed the Agency, with some apprehension concerning its future. I hope that the basic principles on which the Agency was established and implemented by the two first Directors, John Higginson and Lorenzo Tomatis, are maintained.
Since his first book ‘Il Laboratorio’, many other successful books (all in Italian) have been published, describing with humour and an acute eye the various personages and situations encountered in his professional and social life.
Lorenzo Tomatis died on the 21st September 2007 in Lyon, France. Our thoughts go to his wife and son, Delia and Paolo.
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