Robert O'Neill

Mr. O’Neill is a Consultant Upper GI surgeon at Addenbrookes, Cambridge.   His clinical and research interests span oesophagogastric cancer and benign upper GI disease.  He trained as a clinical academic in the South-East of Scotland completing a PhD and clinical lectureship with the University of Edinburgh.  He has developed an interest in minimally invasive OG cancer surgery during fellowships in Cambridge and Utrecht and currently leads both the minimally invasive resection programme, together with his colleague Peter Safranek, and the Laparoscopic CBD exploration service.  He is research lead for the Cambridge oesophagogastric centre, visiting researcher in the Hutchison MRC Cancer Cell unit and a steering committee member of the CRUK Cambridge Thoracic cancer research programme.  He is keen to develop Upper GI surgical networks across East Anglia  and support trainees interested in Upper GI surgery or research.

As I come to the end of my tenure as East Anglia representative, I am able to reflect on a time of unprecedented clinical challenges with COVID, post-pandemic recovery efforts and ongoing industrial action.  I am pleased to say that in spite of this both AUGIS and the region have made significant positive steps.  One of these has been to develop a regional team model of trainee, consultant and AHP representative working together to develop regional AUGIS activity.  I am very pleased we now have an active East Anglia AHP representative following a prolonged period of vacancy.   In the future I hope that a more extended regional trainee tenure will allow this model to develop further.

Following a period of lobbying and discussion at a regional level, protected immersive endoscopy training is now available to upper-GI surgical trainees in the region and feedback from senior UGI trainees has been very positive.  A recent national survey from colleagues in Norwich around OG regional on-call has also stimulated debate around models of providing a complex regional emergency service within East Anglia.  

Looking forward to later this year I want to take this chance to highlight two events I am organizing together with colleagues.  Both will also feature in the AUGIS email circular with more details in due course but this is an opportunity for those interested to save the dates!

The first is the Cambridge Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer Family Day on Thursday 18^th July 2024 which will be held in Cambridge.  This will feature talks around genetics, surgery, endoscopy surveillance and research but will also feature discussion with patients.     Please circulate via your MDTs to any affected families or interested clinicians who may like to attend (HDGC Family Day Tickets, Thu 18 Jul 2024 at 09:30 | Eventbrite).        

The second is the inaugural Cambridge Symposium on Oesophageal Cancer on the Thursday 7^th November 2024 again to be held in Cambridge.  This will feature a series of fantastic talks from world experts from the fields of early cancer detection and oesophageal cancer.  Numbers will be limited so please register early to avoid disappointment.  Further details to be posted soon see (https://crukcambridgecentre.org.uk/research/programmes/thoracic-cancer) or email thoracic@cancer.cam.ac.uk

June 2024