Nathan Mantel Online Memorial

Nathan Mantel, whose groundbreaking work at the National Cancer Institute brought new tools to medical research, died May 26, 2002. A resident of the Washington area since 1940, he suffered a massive heart attack at his home in Potomac, Maryland. One of a handful of pioneering biostatisticians whose contributions added new dimensions and understanding to the field of epidemiology and, in particular, cancer research.

Commenting on Mantel's death, Mitchell H. Gail, Chief of the Biostatistics Branch at the National Cancer Institute, noted, "He was one of the greatest biostatisticians of the century and an inspiration to younger statisticians and a valuable consultant to laboratory scientists and epidemiologists."

Mantel, who retired from the National Cancer Institute in 1974, was described in an issue of "Statistics in Medicine" as having a remarkable ability to "understand scientific issues, appreciate their subtleties, and produce simple compelling analyses." Colleagues said that he preferred to explain the problem and the solution in clearly understood words rather than complex mathematical formulas. Many of the methods that he developed have become common tools in medical research, biostatistics and epidemiology.

Among cancer researchers, he is most famous for the development of his "Mantel-Haenszel Procedure," which was originally used to assess associations between an environmental exposure and cancer risk. His paper on the “Mantel-Haenszel Procedure,” published in “The Journal of the National Cancer Institute” in 1959, is one of the most widely cited papers in the medical literature, and has influenced the design and analysis of thousands of subsequent epidemiological studies.

He also developed the most commonly used method for comparing survival rates. In addition, he devised methods to measure the safety of varying doses of drugs, evaluate diagnostic tests, and assess exposure to radiation.

During his career he published more than 380 professional papers; his contributions were many. Professor James H. Ware of the Harvard School for Public Health wrote, "The Mantel test for survival data, a method for comparing two survival distributions, set the course of an entirely new body of methodology."

Ware continued, "Nathan's most striking attribute was his remarkable insight, intuition and creativity in attacking new problems. The theoretical basis for some of his contributions were only understood years after he proposed them."

Another Harvard professor, Marvin Zelen, who had worked with Mantel at the National Cancer Institute, said, "Nathan was a brilliant data analyst. He had a wonderful knack of being able to see though a complicated problem very quickly and then make the equivalent of 'back of the envelope' calculations."

Born February 16, 1919, the son of impoverished immigrant parents, Mantel grew up in New York's Lower Eastside and spent a portion of his adolescence in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. In later years he attributed part of his success to his innovative teachers at Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School. He was a graduate in 1939 from “City College” in New York. Years later in 1959, after he was already established and had published a number of professional papers, he earned his master's degree in statistics from American University in Washington.

In 1940, after a series of low-level federal jobs which included working the night shift at the Government Printing Office, he was recruited into what became the War Production Board, where his skills helped increase the output of the nation's factories.

Later, a portion of his World War II military service in the Army Air Forces involved statistical analysis of medical research. At war’s end he returned to work at the successor to the War Production Board. With the agency closed down and living with his family in temporary government housing in what is today the National Park Service's Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, he found himself without a job.

In 1947, drawing unemployment, he was sent for a job interview at the National Cancer Institute. He was quickly hired as the third member of a new statistical group. He published his first professional paper three years later.

S.W., "Sam," Greenhouse, another one of the pioneers of biostatistics at the National Cancer Institute, wrote, " ... among statisticians the world over, we had probably the greatest artist of all - Nathan Mantel. No one could match him in quickly identifying the information in the data related to the questions and the swiftness with which he was able to choose an optimum method of analysis. The statistical procedures which bear his name are really nothing compared to his ability to analyze data."

Describing his own approach Mantel wrote, "I generally don't generate ideas of my own. Someone has to come to me with a problem. And, apparently, I'm pretty good at coming up with solutions or ideas for solutions. Identifying problems is what is important -- solutions just follow."

A recipient of many professional honors, after retiring from the National Cancer Institute, he served as a research professor at “The George Washington University” and later at “American University”. He had been a visiting scientist at “The New York University School of Medicine” and a visiting professor at “The University of Tel-Aviv and a visiting professor in neuroepidemiology at “Temple University School of Medicine”. He also lectured at “The China National Center for Preventive Medicine in Beijing.”

He is survived by his second wife, Helen Frey Mantel, Potomac, Maryland and their son David Albin Mantel, Gaithersburg, Maryland and stepdaughter, Julie Phillips, Rockville, Maryland. His first wife, Rhoda Seligson Mantel, from whom he was divorced, died in 1998. From that marriage he is survived by his daughter Amy Mantel Hale, Dumfries, Virginia and son, Eli David Mantel, Palo Alto, California. Another son of that marriage, Jesse Marc Mantel, died in 1990. His youngest sister Anne "Mutzi" Mantel Smith lives in New York; a second sister, Ray Mantel Watt is deceased. He had six grandchildren.