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Preeminent pancreatic cancer surgeon Charles J. Yeo, M.D., has been selected as the new Samuel D. Gross Professor and Chair of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia.

Dr. Yeo is currently chief of the Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and professor of Surgery and Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He will begin his new duties Oct. 1, 2005.

An internationally known pancreas specialist with an impressive record of accomplishment, Dr. Yeo has performed more than 600 Whipple surgical procedures, among the largest number of surgeries performed by a surgeon to remove pancreas tumors in the nation.

He has traveled nationally and internationally teaching and lecturing on the treatment of benign and malignant pancreatic diseases, as well as on other topics pertinent to the alimentary tract. Dr. Yeo’s primary interests and research are in the fields of pancreatic cancer, hepatopancreatobiliary surgery and alimentary tract surgery.  His work has focused on the evaluation and management of patients with unusual pancreatic disorders and with complex alimentary tract diseases and surgical intervention in patients with acute or chronic pancreatitis.

Thomas Nasca, M.D., FACP, dean, Jefferson Medical College, said Dr. Yeo’s experience and leadership skills will make him a wonderful addition to Jefferson.
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“Dr. Yeo is an outstanding researcher as well as educator of young surgeons,” said Dr. Nasca. “He is well known for his contributions toward an interdisciplinary approach to cancer care. With this background, he will build upon the strengths of Jefferson and its Department of Surgery to reinforce our reputation for excellence.” 

Thomas J. Lewis, president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, noted that Dr. Yeo’s expertise will be a tremendous addition to Jefferson’s cancer care programs.

“An outstanding clinical surgeon, he has a reputation for being able to identify distinct types of pancreatic cancer early, with the aim of targeting therapies to treat them,” Mr. Lewis said.

Dr. Yeo said he looked forward to working with Jefferson’s surgeons and researchers in order to continue making clinical advances. “We will work collaboratively to enhance the role of our department and Jefferson as a center of excellence,” he said.

Fostering innovation, Dr. Yeo has, for more than 10 years, directed the Pancreas Cancer Interdisciplinary Working Group at Johns Hopkins, a multi-disciplinary group of clinicians and scientists interested in furthering knowledge of pancreas cancer and related tumors. In 2001, he received the Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was named The John L.
Cameron, M.D., Professor for Alimentary Tract Diseases in 2002.

His other research interests include gastrointestinal (GI) physiology; GI hormones; gallbladder, stomach and bile duct surgery; and complex hernias.

Active on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals, Dr. Yeo currently serves on the boards of Surgery, The Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery, and the International Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer.  The author of more than 400 peer reviewed scientific papers, abstracts and book chapters, he also serves as associate editor of Current Problems in Cancer.  Dr. Yeo is the co-editor of the highly successful five volume encyclopedic Shackelford’s Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, 5th Edition, published in 2002.  He is currently preparing the 6th edition for publication in 2006.
 
Respected by his colleagues throughout the country, he has been listed in Best Doctors in America, Who’s Who and Who’s Who in Medicine, and has been named “Top Doctor” in Surgery by Baltimore magazine.

 He completed a research fellowship in gastrointestinal hormones and physiology at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and completed an internship and residency in general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1985. 

While at the Richmond Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, for six months, he served as a Registrar working within the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. 

In 1985, Dr. Yeo joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as an instructor and assistant chief of service in the Department of Surgery and was named professor of Surgery in 1996. In 1997, he became a professor of Oncology.

He is a member of the American Surgical Association; the Society of Clinical Surgery; the Halsted Society, of which he served as president from 2003 to 2004; the American Gastroenterological Association; the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract; the Southern Surgical Association; the American Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association; and the Society of University Surgeons.

Born in East Orange, N.J., Dr. Yeo received a bachelor of arts degree in Biochemistry from Princeton University in 1975, graduating summa cum laude, and a doctor of medicine degree in 1979 from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, receiving the Upjohn Achievement Award and being elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and Phi Beta Kappa.