Professor Du‑Hyun Yang (Department of Surgery, Medical School) has been elected as the 34th President of the Korean Gastric Cancer Association.

The Korean Gastric Cancer Association is a multidisciplinary society composed of specialists in surgery, internal medicine, radiology, and pathology that treats the most frequently occurring cancer in Korea. It is the largest domestic society of its kind, with 1,093 members.

Accordingly, Professor Yang will lead the Korean Gastric Cancer Association for one year and devote himself to advancing academic work related to gastric cancer and promoting public health.

Professor Yang graduated from Jeonra High School and Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Medical School and has served on the JBNU faculty since 1990. He is regarded as one of the nation’s leading experts in gastric cancer, having performed more than 3,000 gastric cancer surgeries. He served as the 15th Hospital Director of Jeonbuk National University Hospital, and during his tenure he laid the groundwork for the establishment of a Cancer Center, a Clinical Trials Center, and a Functional Food Clinical Trial Support Center.

Professor Yang commented, “The development of the society, which brings together the physicians who treat the largest number of gastric cancer cases in Korea, plays an important role in promoting public health. As president representing the society, I will do my utmost to collect members’ opinions and ideas and present them to the board so that they are practically reflected in policy.”

Founded in 1996, the Gastric Cancer Association has, despite its relatively short history of less than 20 years, achieved notable results in scholarly activities related to gastric cancer and other gastric diseases.

Through organizing conferences and publishing its journal, the association has promoted the latest research trends domestically and has raised its status as the country’s leading society on gastric cancer by hosting the International Gastric Cancer Congress twice. In addition, through its affiliated research groups—the Research Group for Laparoscopic Gastrointestinal Surgery and the Research Group for Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors—the association supports members’ academic research and regularly collects nationwide data to provide members with baseline materials for gastric cancer research. It has published textbooks on gastric cancer and gastrointestinal diseases and has issued a manual for documenting gastric cancer information and clinical practice guidelines for gastric cancer to promote standardization.