Miklós Kásler, Széchenyi Prize-winning university professor, who worked tirelessly and developed his knowledge throughout his life, has died at the age of 76, the Ministry of Interior announced on Friday.
“He offered the sufferings of his painful illness to Christ for the Hungarian Nation in the 76th year of his life,” the statement read. They added that the Ministry of Interior considers him its own deceased, and arrangements for his funeral will be made at a later date.
Miklós Kásler was a Hungarian physician, oncologist, university professor, former Director General and Chief Physician of the National Institute of Oncology, the creator of Hungary’s National Cancer Control Program, and a former Minister of Human Resources.
His passing marks the loss of a prominent figure in Hungarian medical and public life.
He obtained his medical degree from the University of Szeged Faculty of Medicine (SZOTE) in 1974. He received specialist qualifications in surgery (1978), oral surgery (1988), plastic surgery (1998), and clinical oncology (2009). He became a Candidate of Medical Sciences in 1986 and earned his Doctor of Medical Sciences in clinical medicine in 2010.
Kásler began working in 1969 at the Institute of Medical Chemistry of the University of Szeged, later at the Institute of Microbiology in 1974, and at the 2nd Department of Surgery of SZOTE the same year. In 1981, he became a junior physician at the National Institute of Oncology, later rising to adjunct (1984), chief physician (1986), and served as general director and chief physician of the institute between 1992 and 2018.
In 1994, he became a university professor at Haynal Imre University of Health Sciences, where he was head of department from 1998 to 2002. From 2002 to 2015, he held the same position at Semmelweis University.
From 2005, he was head of department at the Postgraduate Faculty of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely, Romania), and from 2007, director of the Department of Oncology at the Oncotherapy Institute of the Clinical Center of the University of Pécs.
Between 2018 and 2022, he served as Minister of Human Resources, and in that role, also as President of the National Cultural Fund (NKA).
His primary research areas included surgical techniques for preserving and restoring function in head and neck surgery, laser reconstructive surgery, and the complex oncotherapy of head and neck tumors.
Throughout his scientific career, he authored numerous textbooks and chapters, and published over 250 papers both in Hungary and abroad.
He was on the editorial boards of several national and international scientific journals and gave presentations at numerous conferences.
Alongside his medical career, he showed a strong interest in the historical and philosophical questions concerning the fate of the Hungarian nation.
As director of the National Institute of Oncology, he became the patron of an international research group studying the ancient history of the Hungarians.
In 2018, this group identified the Y-DNA specific to male members of the Árpád dynasty from the remains of King Béla III, confirming that the dynasty had Eurasian, not Finno-Ugric, origins.
In 2019, at his initiative, the Institute of Hungarian Research was established, where he became honorary president in 2022. Between 2023 and 2025, he served as the institute’s director general, and from 2025, he was senior ministerial advisor at the Ministry of Culture and Innovation.
In recognition of his scientific achievements, Miklós Kásler received the Réthy Aurél Memorial Medal and the Mester Endre Memorial Medal in 2001, the Jubilee Plaque of Markusovszky Hospital in 2004, the Batthyány-Strattmann László Award in 2005, the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 2007, the Prima Award in 2008, the Markusovszky Lajos Award and diploma in 2010, and the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 2015.
In 2018, he was honored with the Széchenyi Prize for his influential work in modernizing oncology care in Hungary and internationally.
That same year, he was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the Nikolay Burdenko State Medical University in Voronezh and received the Pro Paciente Award. In 2021, he was honored with the Vasvári Award.
He was named honorary citizen of Budapest in 2011, of Sárvár in 2012, of Vas County in 2018, of Nagypáli in 2021, and of Ipolyhídvég in Slovakia in 2021. In 2021, he also became an honorary doctor of the University of Novi Sad.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also paid tribute to him, writing on social media:
Healing was his everything. He helped those he could, and healed those it was possible to heal. But in his own battle, he was ultimately defeated. Rest in peace, Professor.”
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Kovács Tamás
The post Oncologist Miklós Kásler Passes Away appeared first on Hungary Today.
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