Dr Harmon Eyre, MD (1941–2025)

Abstract

Dr Harmon Eyre, a much-respected figure of the American Cancer Society (ACS), passed away on May 31, 2025, in Salt Lake City. He was 84 years old.

Dr Eyre started with the ACS as a volunteer in 1971 and joined the ACS national board in 1978. He became its national volunteer president in 1988 and, from 1993 to 2008, served as the Chief Medical Officer and the Editor-in-Chief of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

During his tenure, he increased the effectiveness of the ACS by elevating an emphasis on cancer control and the recruitment of world-class scientists into this ACS research program. In time, it would become one of the leading cancer epidemiology and surveillance groups worldwide. These nascent efforts would bring about one of the most influential and effective cancer surveillance and epidemiology programs in the world.

Under Dr Eyre's stewardship, the Cancer Prevention Study 3 (CPS-3) launched in 2006. The CPS-3 cohort was designed to help the ACS understand the differences between people who get cancer and people who don’t get cancer by utilizing participant recruitment strategy to achieve greater racial and ethnic diversity and collecting biospecimens for molecular epidemiology research. It continues to provide insights into the causes of cancer today and is likely to continue to bear fruit well into the 2030s.

Dr Eyre was instrumental in ensuring continuous support in the pursuit of cancer-related research. For example, in response to federal reductions in funding of grants available to early career investigators in the 1990s, he effectively convinced the ACS board to shift the ACS research program's emphasis with greater support for such researchers. In addition, he led the ACS’s efforts to sponsor tobacco-control grants at a time when federal sponsorship was waning.

Dr Eyre also contributed to several ACS guidelines on cancer screening and prevention. For example, he led the ground-breaking prostate cancer screening process, which followed the ACS's organization of a review of the scientific literature and a gathering of external experts in the areas of both screening and treatment for prostate cancer. The ultimate recommendation called for informed decision making between the patient and the physician. It acknowledged the legitimate concerns about over-screening and overtreatment of the disease but also the hope that prostate cancer screening might save lives. Although released in 1997, it remains highly relevant today and serves as the basis for contemporary prostate cancer screening guidelines and statements from numerous organizations in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Other ACS guidelines implemented under Dr Eyre include the colorectal screening guideline, which added screening colonoscopy, and the 2002 cervical cancer screening guideline, which added human papillomavirus DNA testing. Dr Eyre went on to write a book entitled Informed Decisions. Together with his work in guidelines, it continues to influence many of today's cancer screening guidelines, including those related to lung cancer and the evolving field in multicancer early detection testing.

Born and raised in Utah by his parents, who were both schoolteachers, Dr Eyre was one of six children. He graduated from Utah State University in 1962 and medical school at the University of Utah in 1966 before completing the Osler Internal Medicine Residency at Johns Hopkins University. He completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in 1970 and, in the same year, joined the faculty of the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he went on to serve as associate chairman of Internal Medicine and deputy director of the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Harmon Eyre was a compassionate man with integrity, common sense, and a deep understanding of science and medicine. Dr Harmon was married to Julie Sears Eyre for more than 66 years and, together, they continued to support and contribute to the mission of the ACS long after his tenure as Chief Medical Officer through the active support of ACS initiatives and its staff. He and his wife are beloved friends and role models to many, and the ACS was fortunate to have Dr Harmon as a leader. May he rest in peace.