Dr. James Ho is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. He received his medical degree (M.B.,B.S.) from The University of Hong Kong in 1993, with training in internal medicine and respiratory medicine in the Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital. He obtained Doctor of Medicine from The University of Hong Kong with his thesis entitled “Non-small cell lung cancer: from bench to bedside”. He is a Specialist in Respiratory Medicine in Hong Kong, Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and London. He underwent basic research in lung cancer biology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, USA from 2000-01. Among his various appointments in professional societies, he was the President of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society in 2011-13. Currently, he is a member of the Education Committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and a board member of the Respiratory Subspecialty Board of the Hong Kong College of Physicians.

Dr. Ho has an established track record in lung cancer research, and the areas of focus over the years include the role of antioxidants, epidemiology, diagnostics, and management. The emphasis of recent projects is on translational research into novel lung cancer therapeutic options, and clinical trials. Based on the earlier findings on altered antioxidant expression in lung cancer tissues (Ho JC et al. Cancer Research 2001;61:8578-8585), a subsequent clinical study was conducted demonstrating the independent alterations of systemic superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase levels among lung cancer subjects (Ho JC et al. Eur Respir J 2007;29:273-278). This may further enhance the understanding of the role of antioxidants in lung carcinogenesis. Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) of lung has been an uncommon type of Epstein-Barr virus-related lung cancer with special interest among the Asians. Apart from being one of the pioneers in first-line systemic chemotherapy treatment for advanced LELC of lung (Ho JC et al. Respir Med 2000;94(10):943-947), Dr. Ho and his team have reported a novel clinical application of oral capecitabine as a salvage chemotherapy treatment of this uncommon type of lung cancer (Ho JC et al. J Thorac Oncol 2009;4(9):1174-1177). His clinical experience in LELC of lung has been summarized in one of the few reviews on the area (Ho JC et al. Respirology 2006;11:539-545). In recent years, targeted therapy (e.g. against epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)) has emerged as a promising approach in treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, though acquired resistance is almost inevitable. A recent pre-clinical study on the combination of autophagy inhibitor with erlotinib (targeted therapy against EGFR) may further improve the outcome of this treatment approach (Li YY, Lam SK, Mak JC, Zheng CY, Ho JC. Lung Cancer 2013;81(3):354-61). In addition, another recent pre-clinical model has demonstrated a synergistic combination of arsenic trioxide (available in HKU as an oral treatment for acute promyelocytic leukaemia) and cisplatin in small cell lung cancer (Zheng CY, Lam SK, Li YY, Fong BM, Mak JC, Ho JC. Lung Cancer 2013;82(2):222-30), which holds promise to improve the existing treatment.