2021 Speakers

Dr. Alexey Aleshin has led the oncology clinical development efforts at Natera, Inc. since 2018. Prior to this, he worked on the various novel ctDNA technologies while at Stanford University. He remains a clinical adjunct faculty in the division of Hematology at Stanford, where his work focuses on novel diagnostics assays for treatment decision support in hematologic malignancies. He received a B.A. in Statistics from UC Berkeley and his M.D./M.B.A. degrees at UCLA. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine and hematology/oncology at Stanford University.

Prof. Arndt Vogel is senior consultant and professor of gastrointestinal oncology in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Endocrinology and head of the GI-Cancer Center at Hannover Medical School. Since 2004, he is leading a basic research group interested in the pathogenesis of GI-cancers with a special focus on hepatobiliary cancers and precision medicine. He is a clinical investigator in oncology since 2006 and has served as principal investigator on numerous clinical trials. He is author or co-author of more than 190 articles published in peer-reviewed journals including Lancet Oncology, Cancer Cell, Gastroenterology, and Hepatology.

Dr. Bhawna Sirohi started her oncology career at Tata Memorial centre (TMC), Mumbai in 1994 and completed training at Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, UK. She serves in Apollo Hospital and is currently an honorary consultant with QMUL, London. At TMC in 2012-2014, she set up GI medical oncology &medical oncology information system (MOIS) for e-prescribing chemotherapy. She has been involved in initial setting up of cancer centres in Sangrur and Mohali, Punjab for TMC. She has piloted use of virtual consults using PROM & PREM in London.

Dr. Changhoon Yoo is a medical oncologist who specializes in the care of patients with gastrointestinal cancers, particularly, pancreatic cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors. He has participated in multiple clinical trials and translational research for the development of novel agents for patients with these cancers, and have authored and co-authored more than 80 research articles.

Dr. Chee is a clinician-investigator and medical oncologist in gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary cancers in NCIS. As the Programme Director for the NUHS Medical Oncology Senior Residency [Fellowship] Programme, she is actively involved in the education of the Medical Oncology trainees and she also chairs the Colorectal Cancer Committee of the Singapore Cancer Society

Dr. Choo Su Pin is a medical oncologist who specializes in gastrointestinal cancers including colorectal, upper gastrointestinal, pancreas, hepatobiliary, peritoneal, and anal cancers. Dr. Choo is the immediate past president of the Singapore Society of Oncology, a founding member of the SSO- Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium and a council member of the Chapter of Medical Oncology, Academy of Medicine, Singapore. She is currently an expert panel member of HCC Connect which develops educational programmes for healthcare professionals around the world in liver oncology.

Dr. Connie Yip is a senior consultant radiation oncologist at National Cancer Centre Singapore. Her clinical interests include thoracic and gastrointestinal malignancies. Dr. Yip graduated from the University of Dundee and completed her medical training in Edinburgh. She obtained her Fellowship in Clinical Oncology from the Royal College of Radiologists and subsequently completed her PhD in Cancer Imaging at King’s College London.

Prof. David Ng is the Head ＆ Senior Consultant of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging at Singapore General Hospital. His field of sub-expertise includes treatment of thyroid cancers, radioimmunotherapy, SIRT and other radionuclide therapy, as well as PET/CT imaging, molecular diagnostic techniques and physiological mathematical modelling. He has post-graduate medical training in both Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine. He is currently the President of the Nuclear Medicine Society (Singapore) and past Chair of the Chapter of Nuclear Medicine in the College of Radiologists, Singapore. He has published over 70 papers and 9 book chapters.

Prof. Dora Kwong is currently Clinical Professor in Department of Clinical Oncology, the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include head and neck cancer with an emphasis on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), upper GI cancers including CA esophagus and CA stomach and paediatric cancers. She is involved in multiciplinary management employing both medical treatment and radiotherapy. She is also interested in basic research in carcinogenesis and translational research in identifying prognostic and predictor biomarkers

Dr. Eileen is medical oncologist whose research and clinical activities focus on treating pancreatic and hepatobiliary cancers. Dr. Eileen’s research initiatives include integrating molecular and genetic-based therapies into the treatment of pancreas cancer, developing adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies, and identifying biomarkers that may be used to select therapy. Dr. Eileen is the principal investigator of multiple phase I, II, and III pancreatic cancer clinical trials and have authored and co-authored more than 250 articles, editorials, and book chapters.

Dr. Elizabeth Smyth is an consultant in gastrointestinal oncology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Dr Smyth commenced her oncology training in Dublin, Ireland. In 2009 she was awarded an Irish Society of Medical Oncology fellowship to train at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Centre, New York. Following this she worked at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London from 2011-2018. Her research focus is on clinical trials and translational research in gastroesophageal cancer and she has worked on trial design and management of national and international trials. She is a member of the European Society of Medical Oncology Faculty GI educational faculty and leads the EORTC GI Trials Group Gastric Cancer Taskforce. Dr Smyth is committed to furthering national and international collaboration in GI trials research.

Dr. Ghassan Abou-Alfa is an oncologist in New York, NY and is affiliated with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He received his medical degree from American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine and has been in practice 25 years. He also speaks multiple languages, including French and Arabic. He specializes in gastrointestinal cancer and is experienced in gastrointestinal oncology, general medical oncology, and liver cancer, biliary cancer, pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Ho Gwo Fuang is an Associate Professor and clinical oncologist/radiotherapist at University Malaya Medical Centre and University Malaya Specialist Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was trained at Barts and The London National Health Service (NHS) Trust and The Royal Marsden NHS Trust in London. He attained his Certificate for Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) in 2007 and joined the Faculty of Medicine at University Malaya. He was the recipient of the Joint Commission International (JCI) Outstanding Young Malaysian Award in 2009 for medical innovation. His research interests involve breast, gastrointestinal and gynaecological cancers. He is involved in many national and international collaborative research work. Being a council member of Together Against Cancer (TAC), he champions cancer patients' rights in Malaysia.

Dr. Iain Tan is a Senior Consultant Medical Oncologist, leading the colorectal cancer service in the GI Oncology Team at the Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore. Dr Iain Tan, a clinician-scientist at A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), was awarded the prestigious Singapore Youth Award 2014. Dr Tan has been recognized for his contributions as a consultant oncologist at the National Cancer Singapore (NCCS) and research scientist at GIS, and for his efforts to cultivate an environment conducive for translational research. Dr Tan’s research focuses on new ways in the early detection and diagnosis of colorectal cancer.

Prof. Jimmy So is the Head and Senior Consultant at National University Hospital, Singapore. He was trained in Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery, Surgical Oncology, Bariatric Surgery, Therapeutic Endoscopy and Minimally Invasive Surgery. Prof Jimmy So’s special interests are in gastric cancer, esophageal cancer and obesity. He has published more than 140 peer reviewed scientific papers and received many research grants for his research work in these areas. He received a Gold Award at the annual scientific meeting of the National Healthcare Group. Prof. Jimmy So is a member of editorial board of medical journals such as Gastric Cancer, Journal of Gastric Cancer and Translational Medicine.

Dr. Shiu is a Consultant in the Gastrointestinal Oncology Unit at University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Associate Professor at the UCL Cancer Institute. His research interests include immunotherapy for GI malignancies and Cancer of Unknown Primary, as well as the development of novel cancer clinical trial designs. He is the Principal Investigator of the UCL/UCLH Gastrointestinal Cancer Translational Research Biobank and member of ASCO, ESMO and the Chair of the Association of Cancer Physicians New Consultant Group.

Asst Prof. Kim Guowei completed surgical residency at the National University Hospital in 2016, serving as Chief Resident.He was awarded the NUS "Dean's Excellence Award" for teaching and education in 2017 and the "NUS Medicine Fortitude Award" in 2020 for educational contributions during the COVID crisis. He has authored more than 30 papers and has given multiple presentations, including presenting at Obesity Week/ASMBS 2014.He has also served as an instructor at endoscopic and surgical workshops locally as well as in Malaysia and Bangladesh. He is an active reviewer for several journals including Annals of Surgical Oncology and Obesity Surgery, and is a member of the Singapore Medical Association (SMA), Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia Society (ELSA), Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society of Singapore (OMSSS) and The Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons Society (TUGS).

Lorenza Rimassa graduated at the Medical School of the University of Milan (Italy) in 1993. Her post-graduate education continued with a Medical Oncology degree, achieved in 1997. She worked at the San Raffaele Institute and at the National Cancer Institute in Milan, as clinical and research fellow. Since 1998 she is working at Humanitas Cancer Center, Humanitas Research Hospital – IRCCS, in Milan. She is Deputy Director of the Medical Oncology Unit and Head of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Section. She is a member of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM), of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), of the International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA).

Dr. Matthew NG is a medical oncologist with research interest in gastrointestinal cancers and experimental therapeutics.He completed his PhD from the Institute of Cancer Research (London). Currently he is the oncology lead for upper GI cancers and Deputy Director of the Investigational Medicine Unit at National Cancer Centre Singapore. His research interest is to develop novel therapeutic strategies for patients particularly in gastrointestinal cancers.

Dr. Muhammad Azrif is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Prince Court Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He served at the National University of Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) as a Consultant Clinical Oncologist for 5 years before joining private practice. He has served on various national oncology committees, published in peer-reviewed journals, participated in clinical trials, cancer advisory boards and expert panels. He is the current Honorary President of the Malaysian Oncological Society.

Dr. Peter Galle majored in internal medicine at the Universities of Berlin, Marburg, Mannheim and Heidelberg, Germany, at Hammersmith Hospital, London/UK and, as a Fulbright grantee at University of Texas/USA and received his M.D. degree from Marburg University and Ph.D. degree from Heidelberg University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University Hospital of Heidelberg. In 1998 he became Director of the I. Medical Department in Mainz and from 2005 – 2008 he hold the CEO position of Mainz University Hospital. He is a member of several national and international societies such as the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).He was the President of the German Association for the Study of the Liver (GASL) for the year 2020. His research has focused on elucidating important aspects of apoptotic cell death in the liver, immune escape of tumour cells and on clinical and molecular aspects of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).He was awarded several prizes, amongst others the prestigious Tannhauser award, the highest prize of the German Society for Digestive Diseases. He has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers.

Prof. Pierce Chow is a senior consultant and Co-Director (Surgical) of the Comprehensive Liver Cancer Clinic at the National Cancer Centre Singapore, Senior Consultant Surgeon in HPB and Transplant Surgery at the Singapore General Hospital and Professor and Course Director at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore. In addition to managing a busy HPB surgical oncology service, Prof. Chow has researched extensively on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). He leads collaborative research on the genomic heterogeneity of HCC and applications in precision medicine.

Dr. Rachel Wong is a Medical Oncology Registrar from the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore.

Dr Raghav Sundar is a Consultant Medical Oncologist specialising in Gastrointestinal cancers and early phase clinical trials. His clinical interest is in gastrointestinal cancers. His research interest lies in early phase drug development, immunotherapy, DNA damage repair, and chemotherapy-induced neuropathy. He has published in high impact peer-reviewed journals including Cancer Discovery and Clinical Cancer Research and designs clinical trials for novel cancer drugs.

Dr. Rheun-Chuan Lee has developed his professional training experience with the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in the department of Radiology and Gastrointestinal Radiology. His overseas experience includes being a Research Fellow in MRI center in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, USA, Living Donor Liver Transplant, Imaging and Intervention training with the National Kyoto University Hospital, Kyoto Japan, Yttrium-90 microspheres therapy training at St. Vincent Hospital Sydney in Australia and William Beaumont Hospital in USA.

Dr. Ronan Kelly, M.B., B.Ch., M.B.A is the Director of the Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center and the W.W. Caruth Jr. Dr. Kelly is a clinical professor at Texas A&M University and Professor Clinical Science Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGEN). He remains an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.He is the Founder and the Director of the Texas Immuno-Oncology Biorepository . He is currently leading a new initiative between ASCO and the IASLC to improve lung cancer care in Brazil and Spain. He is a taskforce member of the Gastroesophageal Cancer Committee of ECOG and the National Cancer Institute. Dr Kelly is author or co-author of more than 150 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts and book chapters.

Dr. Shaheenah Dawood's specialty is Oncology and currently works as a Consultant Oncologist in Mediclinic City Hospital. She currently serves as president of the Excellence in Oncology Care (EIOC) congress that is held annually in Dubai and is Co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Breast Cancer Summit (APBCS) & APGCS.

Professor Shailesh V. Shrikhande is a Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgeon from Mumbai, India. He has over two decades of experience with special interest in Pancreatic Cancer surgery. He is the Deputy Director of Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai and also the Head of Division Cancer Surgery and Chief of GI and HPB Surgery. He is the President of the Indian Chapter of IHPBA 2019 – 2021 and Scientific Committee Chair of IHPBA 2019-2021.

Dr. Stephen L. Chan is the Associate Clinical Professor of the Department of Clinical Oncology in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 2000 and obtained specialist qualification in Medical Oncology in 2007. He has been awarded the Gold Medal Prize for Dissertation in 2007 and Young Investigator award in 2008 by the Hong Kong College of Physician. His main research area is on clinical and traditional researches for gastrointestinal cancers, especially hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers.

Dr. Thomas Yau serves as Clinical Associate Professor in Medical Oncology. His main research interests are gastrointestinal oncology, early phase clinical trials and translational research. He pioneered Hong Kong Liver Cancer classification and is one of the global pioneers in a drug development program in hepatocellular carcinoma. He had published more than 100 peer-review publications with articles in various leading oncology journals.

Dr Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau is the founding Medical Director of Sarah Cannon Research Institute UK, and is currently serving as the Executive Medical Director for SCRI UK and Clinical Lead for the Hospital Corporation of America International Cancer Service Line.Dr Arkenau has vast experience in Early Oncology Clinical Drug Development with a special interest in gastrointestinal cancer and melanoma. He received his medical degree in 2000 at the Medical School Hanover, Germany, and completed his internship and specialist training in oncology in 2007. As part of SCRI’s collaboration with University College London (UCL), Dr Arkenau is appointed as a Professorial Research Associate on UCLs faculty and he holds an Honorary Consultant post with UCL Hospitals.

Prof. Toh Han Chong is the Deputy Medical Director and PI of the Laboratory of Cell Therapy and Cancer Vaccine at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), where he also practices as a Senior Consultant Medical Oncologist. Prof. Toh was appointed as an adjunct PI at Singapore Immunology Network in 2019, where his lab is a keystone of the collaborative effort to create synergies between clinical and scientific research initiatives in Singapore, with the objective of enabling new immunotherapeutic breakthroughs for patients with especially virally-driven cancers (VDCs) and solid tumors in general.

Dr. Yong Wei Peng obtained his medical degree and postgraduate training in University of Aberdeen, Scotland.He is also the Chairman of the National Healthcare Group Domain-Specific Ethics Review Board. His clinical interest is in gastrointestinal cancers and his research interests are pharmacogenetics and epigenetics in cancer. He was awarded the A*star international clinical pharmacology fellowship at the University of Chicago,a three-year Investigatorship Award under the Clinician Scientist Award to further his research into personalized therapy. Dr. Yong leads the therapeutic arm (NUH module) of the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium. The consortium received the prestigious five-year Translational Clinical Research grant in 2007.