Professor Hemant Kocher

Professor Hemant Kocher is a Consultant General and hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgeon at OneWelbeck, specialising in diseases of the gall bladder and bile duct, liver and pancreas. He is Professor of Liver and Pancreas Surgery at the Barts Cancer Institute, University of London, as well as Consultant Surgeon at the Royal London and St Bartholomew’s hospitals.

Professor Kocher is widely regarded as being at the cutting edge of his field, receiving national and international recognition for his research into new surgical techniques and improving patient care pathways, as well as translating laboratory research for patient benefit. He runs a large multi-disciplinary pancreas and liver research programme at the Barts Cancer Institute, training the next generation of clinicians and scientists treating diseases of the liver and the pancreas. His laboratory has pioneered the evaluation of tumour-stroma interaction in pancreatic cancer linking patho-physiology of cancer with molecular mechanisms which underpin its aggressiveness. This has led to discovery of novel biomarkers for diagnosing and predicting disease patterns as well as therapeutic areas which are being explored in human clinical trials. It is the first laboratory to target desmoplastic cellular stroma demonstrating the possibility of co-targeting in cancer therapy.

He is also Director of the Cancer Tissue Bank and Pancreas Tissue Bank – the world’s first national pancreas tissue bank. His aim is to change our understanding of disease processes.

He qualified with a number of distinctions, awards and scholarships from the University of Mumbai, in 1993, and then completed his surgical training in Mumbai (KEM Hospital) in 1996. This led to an award of MS (General Surgery) based on his work in “Immunomodulation in Obstructive Jaundice with Tinospora Cordifolia”, which won best thesis award.

Prof Kocher completed his MD (Res) at King’s College London, under the supervision of Prof. Bruce M Hendry and Prof. Irving S Benjamin, in 2003; and completed specialist clinical training in hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery under Prof. Nigel Heaton and Prof Mohammed Rela, in 2005. Professor Kocher has also held visiting posts in Europe and the USA.

He joined the Barts Cancer Institute in February 2005, as a senior clinical lecturer, having been awarded a national clinician scientist fellowship by the National Institute of Health Research (UK).