Peto, Richard (b. 1943)

Peto was educated at Cambridge (MA 1974) and the University of London (MSc in statistics, 1967) and joined the research of Richard Doll at Oxford in 1974. In 1975 he set up the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit at Oxford and in 1992 became professor in medical statistics and epidemiology there. His contributions have been in CVD and cancer, in major meta-analyses of trials, in conducting large-scale trials of therapy, and in observational studies of geographic differences in cancer and CVD and exposures, particularly in huge Chinese populations.

Peto was early to recognize and quantify and correct for regression-dilution bias in effects on prediction of the usual single measures made in epidemiological studies. He now operates the CTSU or Clinical Trial Service Unit at Oxford, devoted to primary and secondary prevention trials.