Prof. Dr. Richard van Hillegersberg attended medical school in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In 1990 he received a research grant from the Dutch Digestive Foundation, that enabled him to perform PhD research on the local treatment of liver metastases at the Department of Surgery, Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. In 1993 he received his PhD with honor. After obtaining his MD in 1994, he became a surgery resident in Rotterdam and was registered as a general surgeon in 2000. From 2001-2002 he was a fellow of Surgical Oncology in the Academic Medical Center and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Netherlands Cancer Center Amsterdam. Since 2003 he has been appointed as staff surgeon at the University Medical Center Utrecht. From 2009 he is a full professor of gastrointestinal oncology and program leader of the GI-Oncology department. From 2015-2018 he was a board member of the UMC Cancer. From 2015 to 2020 he was the head of the Department of Surgical Oncology of the UMC Utrecht.
His clinical interest is upper gastrointestinal tract surgery. Research is focused on minimally invasive and robotic surgery, surgical imaging and genetic profiling. He started with robotic surgery in 2003. Currently, he is performing about 40-60 robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) procedures per year. More recently gastrectomies have performed fully robotic (RAMIG).
He has authored and co-authored over 10 chapters in textbooks concerning robotic foregut surgery and over 400 articles in international peer-reviewed journals.
He is past president of the Dutch GI Surgical Association, past board member of the Dutch Surgical Association, past board member and founder of the Dutch Society for Liver Surgery, past president of the European Digestive Surgery, past Chairman and founder of the Dutch Upper GI Surgery Working Group and member of the permanent Scientific committee OESO World Organisation for Specialised studies on diseases of the esophagus. From 2016-2019 he was chairman of the Comprehensive Cancer Network Utrecht. Since 2017 he has been the president of the European Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (ESSAT) and a surgical representative in the council of the United European Gastroenerology. He is chairman and council member of the Educational Committee of the European Society for Diseases for the Esophagus (EDS), and founder and chairman of the Upper GI International Robotic Association (UGIRA).
Selected publications from PubMed
Systemic therapy, gastrectomy, cytoreductive surgery, and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy versus systemic therapy alone for gastric cancer with limited peritoneal metastases (PERISCOPE II): final results of a multicentre, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial after an unplanned commissioned interim analysis.
Quik JSE, Vollebergh MA, Retèl VP, van der Sluis K, Koemans WJ, van der Kaaij RT, Voets MM, Luyer MDP, van Hellemond IEG, Wijnhoven BPL, Mostert B, van Hillegersberg R, Mohammad NH, van Etten B, de Groot DJ, Helminen O, Hedberg J, Cashin PH, Harbjerg JL, Veenhof AAFA, Hartemink KJ, Kodach LL, van der Noort V, van Sandick JW, PERISCOPE II consortium
Lancet Oncol. 2026 Aug;27(8):1031-1042 doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(26)00144-0.
Oligometastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review of current definitions and meta-analysis of local therapy outcomes.
Nomura M, Bronzwaer SFC, Kroese TE, van Rossum PSN, Ruurda JP, van Hillegersberg R, Kato K, Ogata T, Kanda M, Hamai Y, Tsubosa Y, Yoshii T, Furuta M, Sakanaka K, Matsuda S, Tsushima T, Laarhoven HWM, Takeuchi H
Dis Esophagus. 2026 Jul 2;39(4) pii: doag078. doi: 10.1093/dote/doag078.
Pre- and Post-Treatment Predictive Models of Peritoneal Recurrence After Fluorouracil, Leucovorin, Oxaliplatin, and Docetaxel-Chemotherapy and Surgery: An International Study.
Lee MM, Wong DJ, Hall K, Duong CP, Watson DI, Donohoe CL, Bright T, Aly A, Chan K, Chan DL, Merrett N, Gananadha S, Lam YH, Kanhere H, Smithers BM, Bozin M, Read M, Mori K, Johnson MA, Wong E, Martin SA, Ooi G, Al-Habbal Y, Liew CH, Bohmer R, Daruwalla J, Ballal M, Ranjan R, MacCormick AD, Pattison S, Evennett N, Robertson J, Tan J, Gordon A, Bann S, Samarasam I, Gurunathan R, So J, Yeung J, Ferri L, Griffiths EA, Phillips AW, Markar SR, Chan D, Murphy T, Reynolds J, Nilsson M, Piessen G, Wijnhoven B, van Hillegersberg R, van Berge Henegouwen MI, Lombardi PM, Clemons NJ, Allan Z, Hamilton AJ, Liu DS, SPACE-FLOT Investigators
JCO Precis Oncol. 2026 Jul;10(7):e2501145 doi: 10.1200/PO-25-01145.
Total versus subtotal gastrectomy following neoadjuvant flot chemotherapy for distal diffuse gastric adenocarcinoma: an international cohort study.
Sivakumar J, Wong DJ, Hall K, Lee MM, Duong CP, Watson DI, Donohoe CL, Bright T, Aly A, Chan K, Chan DL, Merrett N, Gananadha S, Lam YH, Kanhere H, Smithers B, Bozin M, Read M, Mori K, Johnson MA, Wong E, Martin SA, Ooi G, Al-Habbal Y, Liew CH, Bohmer R, Daruwalla J, Ballal M, Ranjan R, MacCormick AD, Pattison S, Evennett N, Robertson J, Tan J, Gordon A, Bann S, Samarasam I, Gurunathan R, So J, Yeung J, Ferri L, Griffiths EA, Phillips AW, Markar SR, Chan D, Murphy T, Reynolds J, Nilsson M, Piessen G, Wijnhoven B, van Hillegersberg R, van Berge Henegouwen MI, Lombardi PM, SPACE-FLOT Investigators, Liu DS
Gastric Cancer. 2026 Jul;29(4):827-840 doi: 10.1007/s10120-026-01746-7.
Implementation of an enhanced recovery after surgery protocol for esophagectomy: an evaluation in a high-volume tertiary center.
Kooij CD, van Haarlem I, Sanders ME, Lammes FE, van der Horst S, Kingma BF, Marsman M, Cremer OL, Steenhagen E, Kerst A, Schippers C, van den Berg JW, Preston SR, Cheong E, Ruurda JP, van Hillegersberg R
J Gastrointest Surg. 2026 Apr;30(4):102353 doi: 10.1016/j.gassur.2026.102353.
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