Dr. John Chia graduated with double distinctions in Medicine and Surgery from the National University of Singapore in 1999, and obtained his Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh in 2002. Early on in his career, he was actively engaged with the then nascent field of immunotherapy for solid cancers, and heavily involved with the leadership or development of 7 immunotherapy clinical trials in Singapore. Post Oncology Boards in 2008 and 2009, he undertook fellowship training with Professor Malcom Brenner – in the field of Immunotherapy for Solid Tumors – namely in the development of dendritic cancer vaccines, adoptive T cell therapy, and immune biomarker monitoring for cancers. In 2011 and 2012, he completed a second fellowship with Professor Stan Kaye at The Royal Marsden Hospital London for the Advanced Management of Gynecological cancers.
Dr. Chia is active in clinical trial research, and has developed numerous research protocols and trials for ovarian, cervical, colorectal, nasopharyngeal, and breast cancer. He has published widely in leading international journals, and holds numerous local and international research grants exceeding 10 million dollars – for research in immune check-point inhibitors, cancer vaccines, T cell therapy, Aspirin chemoprevention, and small molecule inhibitors for cancer. In 2010, he was awarded “Best Poster” for a tumor-specific cancer vaccine trial at the European Society of Medical Oncology, Milan (amongst several thousand submissions), and more recently “Best Poster Presentation” at ESMO Asia in 2017, for his clinical trial in aggressive ovarian cancer.
Dr. Chia was the former Chief of the Gynaecology Oncology service in the Division of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre, and is Vice-President and founding board member of the Gynecologic Cancer Group Singapore. He was also the former Adjunct Associate Professor at DUKE-NUS. He lectures widely, including in Japan, Korea, HK, China, UK – including plenary symposia lectures in Germany, Australia and ESMO Asia. Locally he has helped to write the Singapore ovarian and uterine cancer management guidelines (SCAN).
He is exco member of the Mt Eliz Novena Hospital medical board and the ex-chair of their Neoplasia committee. He is a member of the Parkway Independent Ethics committee since 2019, that oversees the review and approval of clinical trials, recruiting human subjects for novel therapies in the Parkways hospital system.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Chia has run a busy clinical practice, managing complex Gyne-oncology. His sub-speciality interests include Ovarian, Endometrial, Cervical, Breast and Colorectal cancers – including the management of rare tumors - such as melanoma, uterine sarcomas, and germ cell tumors.
Myth: Cancer is a death sentence
Fact: About one third of all cancers can be cured if they are detected and treated early. This is why you are recommended to go for regular screenings and health check-ups. The five-year survival rates for certain cancers, such as breast, prostate, and thyroid cancers, is now 90% or better. Advancements in cancer treatments also give patients with advanced cancers the chance to live longer.
Read more about the importance of regular health screening here.
