J. Jan B. van Lanschot

J. Jan B. van Lanschot, MD, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam and one of the architects of modern esophageal cancer treatment in Europe. He played a central role in both the CROSS trial—which established neoadjuvant carboplatin/paclitaxel chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery as a new standard of care in resectable esophageal cancer—and in the TIME (Traditional Invasive versus Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy) randomized trial that provided the highest-quality evidence for the safety and superiority of minimally invasive esophagectomy over open surgery. The CROSS trial (Shapiro et al., NEJM 2012, with long-term data in Lancet Oncology), in which van Lanschot was a coordinating surgical investigator, demonstrated that neoadjuvant chemoradiation improved R0 resection rates and pathological complete response and improved median overall survival from 24.0 to 49.4 months in patients with resectable esophageal or GEJ cancer. The TIME trial (NEJM 2012), which he led, showed that minimally invasive esophagectomy reduced pulmonary complications and in-hospital stay versus open esophagectomy without compromising oncological outcomes, providing the definitive evidence base for the widespread adoption of minimally invasive approaches. Van Lanschot has authored over 350 peer-reviewed publications and his Erasmus MC program is recognized internationally as a center of excellence for high-volume, high-quality esophageal cancer surgery. His work on active surveillance after pathological complete response to neoadjuvant chemoradiation ('watch and wait' strategy) is defining a new frontier in esophageal cancer management.