Professor Eric Van Cutsem, M.D., Ph.D

Professor Eric Van Cutsem is currently Professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He is responsible for the Department of Digestive Oncology at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Leuven. Professor Van Cutsem obtained the degree of medical doctor in 1983 at the University of Leuven, specialised in internal medicine and obtained his PhD degree in 1994. During his training he spent several months in England, Switzerland, the USA and the Netherlands involved in clinical and research projects.

Professor Van Cutsem's main research interest is the treatment of gastrointestinal tumours and he has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles (120 in pubmed) and more than 250 other texts or chapters in books. His work has appeared in respected publications such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, European Journal of Cancer, British Journal of Cancer and Gastroenterology. He also co-ordinates several European and worldwide trials investigating new drugs for gastrointestinal cancer and serves on many steering committee and advisory boards.

Professor Van Cutsem is a member of several scientific organisations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), the European NeuroEndocrine Tumor Network (ENET) and many national organisations. He was member of the programme committee of ASCO 2003-2004 and is member of the ASCO Cancer Education Committee Committee 2005-2008 and is chairman of the ECCO 2005 colon cancer committee.

He is president of the Belgian FAPA (Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Association) and served as secretary of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer - Gastrointestinal Cancer Group (EORTC-GI group) from January 2000 till February 2003. He became chairman of the EORTC GI group in March 2003. He is member of the general assembly of PETACC (Pan European Trials on Adjuvant Colon Cancer).

Professor Van Cutsem is the co-editor of GI News, the newsletter of the EORTC-GI-group and is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, European Journal Cancer, Japanese Journal Clinical Oncology, Clinical Colorectal Cancer, European Journal of Cancer Prevention, Journal of Chemotherapy, Expert Opinion of Pharmacotherapy as well as several others. He was organiser of the PICC (Perspectives In Colorectal Cancer) meetings in Barcelona and is chairman of the scientific committee of the World Congress in Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona in June 2004 and 2005.