A pioneer of cancer genetics, Henry Lynch, died on Sunday (June 2) at the age of 91, according to a press release from Creighton University, where he spent the bulk of his career. Lynch studied the cancer histories of more than 3,000 families to find genetic links to their diseases, states the release, ultimately discovering hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome and hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer.
“Henry Lynch occupies a distinguished place in the pantheon of the greatest cancer geneticists of the modern era,” says Kenneth Offit of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to The Washington Post.
Lynch grew up in Depression-era New York. He is a veteran who served during World War II in the Pacific, according to the release. After his service, he was a professional boxer going by the nickname “Hammerin’ Hank,” until he returned to school in the late 1940s.
After completing doctoral work in human genetics from ...
