# John Burn

Source: https://onco.cc/people/john-burn/  
OnCo record `john-burn` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The Newcastle geneticist whose CAPP2 trial showed that two years of aspirin cuts bowel cancer in people born with Lynch syndrome, a result that still shapes NHS advice.

## Summary

Sir John Burn has been Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University since 1991, was a consultant clinical geneticist with the Northern Genetics Service from 1984, and chaired Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2017 to 2023. He was first author of CAPP2, which randomised carriers of a mismatch repair gene variant to aspirin or placebo and found a reduction in cancer incidence, and of the 10-year follow-up with registry-based 20-year data that confirmed the effect lasted. NICE NG151 recommendation 1.1.1 asks clinicians to consider daily aspirin for more than two years to reduce colorectal cancer risk in Lynch syndrome; the CAPP3 study is testing which dose.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Tags: colorectal; genetics; uk; prevention
- Role: Professor of Clinical Genetics, Newcastle University
- Specialisms: Inherited cancer predisposition; Lynch syndrome; Chemoprevention

## Sources

- Newcastle University staff page: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/people/profile/johnburn.html

## Connected records

- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [Early-onset colorectal cancer (under 50)](https://onco.cc/cancers/early-onset-colorectal/)
- fronts: [Prevention & Risk](https://onco.cc/fronts/prevention/)
- drugs: [Aspirin](https://onco.cc/drugs/aspirin/)
- institutions: [Newcastle Cancer Centre / Northern Centre for Cancer Care](https://onco.cc/institutions/newcastle-cancer-centre/)
- terms: [Lynch syndrome](https://onco.cc/terms/lynch-syndrome/)
- trials: [CAPP2](https://onco.cc/trials/capp2/)

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