Ask a Medical Oncologist: Dr Choo Su-Pin from Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital Singapore and Farrer Park Hospital Singapore

I am Dr Choo Su-Pin, Medical Oncologist practicing at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital Singapore and Farrer Park Hospital Singapore. Ask Me Anything! I am a medical oncologist who specializes in gastrointestinal cancers including colorectal, upper gastrointestinal, pancreas, hepatobiliary, peritoneal, and anal cancers. I am a key opinion leader in hepatobiliary cancers. I was the President of the Singapore Society of Oncology (SSO), a founding member of the SSO-Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium and a council member of the Chapter of Medical Oncology, Academy of Medicine, Singapore. I was the Deputy Head of the Division of Medical Oncology prior to private practice and Chief of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Department from 2012 to 2018. I graduated from the University of Nottingham Medical School, UK before returning to Singapore. I have fellowships from the Royal College of Physicians, UK and the Academy Of Medicine, Singapore and was trained in medical oncology at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS). I was one of the few overseas participants selected to participate in the AACR/ASCO Methods in Cancer Research Workshop, held in Vail in 2006. I also did a research fellowship at the University of California San Francisco where I worked on clinical trials for gastrointestinal cancers and undertook laboratory research on understanding neuroendocrine tumours. In 2011, I obtained a SMU-Singhealth Graduate Diploma in Healthcare Management and Leadership. For my clinical care of patients, I received the Gold Excellent Service Award in 2010. At NCCS, I was a Senior Consultant in the Division of Medical Oncology and co-Director of the Comprehensive Liver Cancer Clinic from 2014 till 2019. I was a driver of many initiatives and was instrumental in setting up the Experimental Cancer Therapeutics Unit ( ECRU) at NCCS which focuses on drug development and early phase oncology trials. ECRU is now one of the leading phase 1 trial units in Asia. I have led many clinical trials in gastrointestinal cancers and was Deputy Head of Clinical Trials and Epidemiological Sciences department of NCCS, which is one of the largest clinical trial centres in Singapore, before I became Chair of the Clinical Trials Steering Committee. I also set up the gastrointestinal database at NCCS and was adjunct Principal Investigator at the Singhealth Investigational Medicine Unit. I am a member of the Asia-Pacific Hepatocellular Cancer Trials Workgroup and was in the steering committee for the AHCC006 trial which was an international multicenter clinical trial on liver cancer led from Singapore. Research areas of particular interest include pancreatico-hepatobiliary cancers and immuno-oncology. I have received more than $4 million in grant awards for my research work as principal investigator including grants from the National Medical Research Council and received numerous other grants as co-investigator. I have publications in high impact journals like Lancet, Nature Genetics, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology and Cancer Discovery. I have also presented my research work at numerous prestigious overseas meetings. In my administrative capacity, I have sat on various committees overseeing issues ranging from infection control, research space, public education, patient support and planning for the new cancer centre. I hold the positions of Adjunct Associate Professor, Singhealth Duke-NUS Oncology Academic Clinic Programme, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore and was Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin Medical School, National University of Singapore where I have done both research mentorship and clinical teaching. I believe strongly in the need to educate each other in the latest developments in oncology and have organized numerous oncology conferences including the Best of ASCO in Singapore, Asia-Pacific Liver Cancer Experts Meeting and the Asia-Pacific Gastroenterology Cancer Summit. I was Local Chair of the ESMO Asia conference in Singapore and co-chaired the ESMO preceptorship in Gastrointestinal Cancers in 2017 and 2018. I am also a member of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Society of Geriatric Oncology Singapore and the European Society of Medical Oncology. Internationally, I have served on advisory boards of pharmaceutical companies for gastrointestinal cancer drug development, delivered lectures as an invited speaker at both national and international conferences including American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting and ESMO Asia. In particular, I was involved in the development of the first immune-oncology drug that was approved in liver cancer by US FDA. I am a committee member of Pan-Asia Adapted ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma and of the Asia-Pacific Liver Cancer Experts Consensus on Intermediate HCC. I am also an overseas external reviewer of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for hepatobiliary cancer and gallbladder cancer and have been a regular participant in the US NCI Hepatobiliary Cancers Taskforce Workgroup which oversees all national clinical trials for hepatobiliary cancers in the USA. I am currently an expert panel member of HCC Connect which develops educational programmes for healthcare professionals around the world in liver oncology. Learn more about me here: https://patients.smarterhealth.sg/specialist-doctor/choo-su-pin/ I am excited to be here to share/discuss Gastrointestinal Cancers with everyone. I will be actively answering questions. Whether you've got questions about gastrointestinal cancers including colorectal, upper gastrointestinal, pancreas, hepatobiliary, peritoneal, and anal cancers, ask me anything! === Want to ask a question? Submit your question at the bottom of this page. Don’t forget to include your name and email address to get notified when the doctor answers your question.