Jimmy So, surgeon, National University Cancer Institute of Singapore, Singapore

Biography

Professor Jimmy So is a committed upper gastrointestinal (UGI) surgeon with a strong research interest in gastroesophageal cancers, peritoneal carcinomatosis, and complex UGI diseases such as morbid obesity and achalasia. After graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991, he received surgical training at National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore, followed by fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA, and the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Prof So pioneered the multidisciplinary management of upper GI cancers, introducing novel treatments, including neoadjuvant therapy for esophageal cancer and peritoneal-directed chemotherapy for peritoneal carcinomatosis. In 2010, Prof So founded the Centre for Obesity Management and Surgery (COMS), a high-volume multidisciplinary clinic that provides holistic care for over 1,000 patients annually and conducts active research on metabolic diseases and obesity.

Prof So has published over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including 65 as the first, last, or corresponding author. His work has achieved an H-index of 59 with 13,745 citations (Google Scholar, January 2025). His research has appeared in numerous Tier-1 medical journals, including Lancet, Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics, Gastroenterology, Gut, Cancer Discovery, Annals of Surgery, British Journal of Surgery, and JAMA Surgery.

Summary of presentation

Peritoneum is the most common site of metastasis from many cancers including gastric cancer. Symptoms are distressing and prognosis is dismal. It is resistant to conventional systemic chemotherapy. Recently, there was better understanding of the biology of this disease through multi-omics analysis. There were many forms of peritoneal-directed chemotherapy developed with improved pharmacokinetics over systemic chemotherapy due to plasma-peritoneal barrier. These included catheter-based intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IPC), hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), and pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC). In this lecture, I will speak on our recent preclinical and clinical studies on PC. In addition, translational research to identify better biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets and a new clinical trial on the role of conversion surgery will be discussed.