Biography
Mr Eric Lim studied at the University of Sheffield and trained in cardiothoracic surgery in Cambridge and London.
He was the recipient of an MRC scholarship and was awarded an MSc in Biostatistics and an MD for surgical research.
He joined the Royal Brompton Hospital in 2007 as a consultant thoracic surgeon and leads the hospital’s Cancer Research Consortia.
Mr Lim specialises in thoracic surgical diseases, with a strong focus on patient care, aspiring to make thoracic surgery that causes the least amount of pain and disruption to the patient’s life as possible.
Holding leadership positions both nationally and internationally places Mr Lim at the forefront of his speciality, providing balanced and authoritative opinions on patient and clinical care for patients with advanced lung cancer, where surgery is being considered or when patients who have been declined surgery because they were considered too high risk.
Mr Lim currently holds positions as:
- Chair of British Thoracic Society / Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery Guidelines on the Radical Management of Lung Cancer 2010
- Member of European Society of Medical Oncology Guidelines for the Management of Early-stage Lung Cancer 2013
- Member of the European Neuroendocrine Society Guidelines on the Management of Bronchopulmonary Neuroendocrine Tumours 2014
- Associate editor of Thorax
- Associate editor of the European Thoracic Oncology Platform
- Council member of European Society of Thoracic Surgeons
- Member of Steering Committee of the British Thoracic Oncology Group
- Panel member of UK Intercollegiate Speciality Board in Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Chair of UK Thoracic Surgery Research Collaborative
- Chief investigator of MARS2 a UK multicentre randomised trial of surgery (pleurectomy decortication) for mesothelioma.
Areas of expertise
Mr Lim’s clinical expertise includes:
- minimally invasive (VATS lobectomy) lung surgery
- open lung resection for cancer
- sleeve resections
- airway surgery
- arterial reconstructions
- mediastinal disorders (benign and malignant tumours)
- surgery for neuroendocrine tumours and small cell lung cancer
- surgery for emphysema (lung volume reduction surgery)
- pleural effusions
- pneumothoraces.
Research
Mr Lim's translational research focus is on diagnostic and predictive biomarkers in cancer working with circulating tumour cells, circulating free DNA and RNA with an aim to develop a blood test for cancer.
Publications
Over the last 10 years, Mr Lim has published over 70 peer-reviewed publications, and his research on systematic reviews and clinical trials in thoracic surgery, surgical oncology, biomarker development and validation in lung cancer has been awarded national and international prizes, including the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery best thoracic surgery research for four consecutive years (2008 to 2011).
PubMed has a list of Eric Lim's peer-reviewed publications.
Mr Lim is perhaps best known as the editor of An Integrated Textbook of Medicine and Surgery, published by Elsevier. This pioneering textbook links two traditionally separate specialities, and is a core textbook for medical students, awarded Highly Commended in Medicine by the British Medical Association Book awards 2008, Highly Commended in Best Edited Medical Textbook category by the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Society of Authors 2008, and Highly commended by an NHS Innovations Awards 2008 in the books and interactive media category.
He has also edited Churchill’s Pocketbook of Differential Diagnosis, now in it’s fourth English edition and also translated into Greek and Russian.
Awards
- 2020 Robert J. Ginsberg Lectureship Award for Surgery, awarded by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)
Private patient referral
If you would like to make an appointment with this specialist for private care, contact the RB&HH Specialist care team.