Prof. Yi-Chia Lee

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Medicine (1989-1996)

College of Medicine, National Taiwan University

Master of Science (2004-2006)

The Graduate Institute of Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University

Doctor of Philosophy (2006-2010)

Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University

POSITIONS

• Resident (1996-2001)

Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital

• Attending physician (2003-now)

Division of Digestive Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital

• Lecturer (2005-2007)

College of Medicine, National Taiwan University

• Clinical lecturer (2007-2008)

College of Medicine, National Taiwan University

• Clinical assistant professor (2008-2012)

College of Medicine, National Taiwan University

• Clinical associate professor (2012-2016)

College of Medicine, National Taiwan University

• Clinical professor (2016/8-now)

College of Medicine, National Taiwan University

• Jointly appointed professor (2018/8-now )

Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Taiwan University

• Science and Education Committee, Taiwan Gastroenterology Society
• Science and Education Committee, board certified endoscopist, and endoscopy mentor of The Digestive Endoscopy Society of Taiwan

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori infection and its role in peptic ulcer disease, dyspepsia, and gastric cancer.

Design, implementation, and evaluation of population-based screening and prevention programs, including the gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, and cancers in the upper aerodigestive tract

MAJOR RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION

The overriding theme throughout the Dr. Lee’s researches is the「Cancer Screening/Prevention and the Program Evaluation」, with emphasis on the evaluation of disease natural course and the risk factors and design, implementation, and evaluation of the effectiveness from a population-based screening program. Such a concept has been applied to the gastric cancer, and colorectal cancer, and upper aerodigestive tract cancers; all are prevalent cancers in the luminal gastrointestinal tract in Asia/Pacific region. Because cancer is a great thread to public health, his academic work has generated significant impact on the society, economy, and the academics. Take gastric cancer as the example, Dr. Lee has devoted himself to the screening and treating H. pylori infection in the high-risk population residing on Matsu Island. After more than one decades of mass screening, the benefit of using such a strategy on gastric cancer prevention in a general community-based population has been quantified for the first time, leading to 77.2%, 67.4%, and 25% reduction of atrophic gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer, respectively, which was also confirmed to be cost-effective. Further combining the result from this study with those from China, Colombia, Finland, Japan, and Korea, Dr. Lee conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to prove H. pylori eradication is the level one evidence for gastric cancer prevention, providing a significant 47% risk reduction of gastric cancer. In gastric cancer, the carcinogenic process starts with gastritis, progressing to precancerous lesions and cancer, while the development of preventive methods follows the reverse sequence. Dr. Lee’s contribution is of particular importance to everyday gastroenterology practice in the Asia/Pacific region, providing a cornerstone for the prevention of gastric cancer right at its starting point, greatly expanding our view of gastritis and risk factors for H. pylori-associated gastric cancer, and demonstrating how to implement such a strategy on a population-wide scale. Owing to the significant contribution on the global campaign again gastric cancer, he has been invited as the guest expert and consensus panelist in several important international meetings, including International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, WHO): Helicobacter pylori Working Group on “Helicobacter pylori Eradication as a Strategy for Gastric Cancer Prevention” (Lyon, France, 2014; the working group report is available at: https://www.iarc.fr/en/publications/pdfs-online/wrk/wrk8/Helicobacter_pylori_Eradication.pdf), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Consensus on Helicobacter pylori Management in the Limited Resource Setting (Pattaya, Thailand, 2015), Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium (Singapore, 2015), and Consensus Meeting on Prevention and Treatment of Gastric Cancer in Asia-Pacific Region (Xi’an, China, 2016). He has also contributed a review article regarding the theoretical and practical considerations of mass eradication of H. pylori in the official journal of Korean Society of Gastroenterology. Dr. Lee is the current principle investigator of Taiwan Gastrointestinal Disease and Helicobacter Consortium, a platform for initiating the multicenter trials and innovating the biomarkers and therapeutics.