Emeritus Professor Jack Cuzick and Professor Peter Sasieni, both from the Wolfson Institute of Population Health Centre for Cancer Screening Prevention and Early Diagnosis, have been recognised in The King’s New Year Honours list 2025. Jack has received a Knighthood for services to cancer prevention, and Peter has been awarded a CBE for services to cancer early detection and prevention in the 2025 New Year Honours list, which recognises the achievements and service of extraordinary people across the UK. Professors Cuzick and Sasieni have worked together for over 25 years, particularly on HPV testing for cervical cancer screening, with Peter’s clinical trials unit running Jack’s trials on tamoxifen and anastrozole in breast cancer prevention.
Among the many achievements in his 40 year career, Jack has made major contributions to breast, cervical and prostate cancer prevention, prediction and screening. His Knighthood recognises his work demonstrating that anastrozole, a hormone blocker used for many years to treat breast cancer in post-menopausal women, is also safe and effective at preventing the disease - which led to anastrozole becoming the first drug to be repurposed through the world-leading Medicines Repurposing Programme, a UK initiative that helps realise the full potential of existing medicines in new uses to save and improve more lives on the NHS.
Before retiring in 2023, Jack was the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and served as Director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine from 2013 to 2021. A statistician by background, his career has had a transformative impact on breast and cervical cancer services in the NHS and throughout the world, saving thousands of lives. He was the first to show that tamoxifen, a hormone therapy drug used to treat breast cancer, was highly effective in the prevention of the disease. He also developed the globally used Tyrer-Cuzick model for assessing the risk of a person developing breast cancer.
Jack’s findings in cervical cancer screening and prevention research have been adopted worldwide. He pioneered the use of HPV DNA testing for cervical cancer screening, which has now replaced Pap smear testing as the primary screening method for cervical cancer in many parts of the world. He also co-designed the clinical trial for the Gardasil 9 vaccine, protective against nine types of HPV - seven of which cause 90% of all cervical cancers.
On receiving his Knighthood, Professor Cuzick said:
‘I am deeply honoured to receive a Knighthood for my contributions to cancer prevention. I am proud to have dedicated my career to cancer prevention, and I’m grateful that my research has made important and useful contributions to this field. I hope that this award raises the profile of cancer prevention as an important field for scientific research and public interaction.’
Peter Sasieni is Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, joint lead of the WIPH Centre for Cancer Screening, Prevention and Early Diagnosis, and Director of the Cancer Research UK Cancer Prevention Trials Unit at Queen Mary. Peter is internationally recognised for his transformational work on the design and execution of clinical trials in cancer early detection and prevention. He is best known for his work on cervical screening and HPV infection, and was lead author of a landmark study that showed a dramatic reduction in cervical cancer following HPV vaccination. In addition to his practice-changing research in cervical cancer prevention, he has also worked on several large projects in breast cancer, e-cigarette trials, and early detection of Barrett’s oesophagus and the prevention of oesophageal cancer. He currently leads or co-leads several large projects, including two trials to discover ways to find heartburn-related health problems and prevent oesophageal cancer, and the NHS-Galleri trial, which is looking at whether a blood test can be used in the NHS for the early detection of multiple cancers when used alongside existing cancer screening.
On receiving his CBE, Professor Sasieni said:
‘I am greatly honoured to receive a CBE for services to cancer early detection and prevention. This award provides a tremendous boost for me and my team as we continue our research to improve cancer control in the UK and around the world. I would like to recognise and thank the many colleagues whose contributions have enabled me and my team to make great progress in cancer detection and prevention. I am especially grateful to my team, Queen Mary University of London and Cancer Research UK for their long-standing support that has made this research possible.’
Professor Colin Bailey CBE, President and Principal of Queen Mary University, said:
‘I am delighted to congratulate Professor Jack Cuzick on receiving a Knighthood and Professor Peter Sasieni for receiving a CBE in The King’s New Year Honours. This is hugely deserved. They are both world-recognised leaders in cancer prevention, and have spearheaded research on cancer screening, prevention and early diagnosis here at Queen Mary University of London. Their work has saved many lives, and I would like to thank both of them for the hope they provide to so many people, as we continue to fight the awful disease of cancer. They are pillars of our community, and exemplars of the leadership and research quality that makes our University what it is.’