Dr. Henry Lynch (January 4, 1928 - June 2, 2019)
Dr. Henry Lynch, often referred to as “The Father of Cancer Genetics”, died on June 2, 2019. It is with heartfelt sorrow and immense gratitude that we honor Dr. Lynch today for his persistence in his belief that some cancers in families could be hereditary. For decades, with meticulous research into more than 3,000 worldwide family cancer histories, he tried to convince the medical cancer community that cancer could be hereditary when it was widely believed at the time that cancer was caused by environmental factors or viruses. He is responsible for saving many, many thousands of lives. His theories were finally proven in the 1980’s when the advent of molecular genetic techniques identified the first of five Lynch Syndrome gene mutations, MSH2. Through his research of families, he also contributed to the discovery of Breast-Ovarian Cancer Syndrome which led to the identification of the BRCA gene mutations.