Clinical expertise
Professor Eric Lim is a consultant thoracic surgeon who leads the academic division of thoracic surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital.
He specialises in:
- minimally-invasive (keyhole) surgery for lung and chest cancer
- multi-modality treatments for early and advanced stage lung cancer
- airway and blood vessel reconstruction (to save as much normal lung as possible)
- day case mediastinal surgery
- surgery for emphysema
- day case pleural effusion surgery
- day case pneumothorax surgery
- lung cancer screening
Professor Lim was a pioneer in establishing the single-incision keyhole surgery programme for lung cancer at Royal Brompton Hospital. Now he performs the majority of his operations through a single 3cm incision and many of which are conducted as day-case procedures.
Locations
Our specialist provides care at these locations:
Biography
Professor Eric Lim is a consultant thoracic surgeon who treats NHS and private patients at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.
He received his undergraduate medical education at the University of Sheffield. He went on to complete heart and lung surgical training at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge and Royal Brompton Hospital in London.
Professor Lim spent time in medical research in Cambridge where he was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine. He received his Master of Science in medical statistics, funded by a scholarship from the UK Medical Research Council.
He joined Royal Brompton Hospital in 2007 as a thoracic surgeon and is the academic and research lead for thoracic surgery. Professor Lim is an internationally recognised chest surgeon spearheading advancements in thoracic surgery through the development, conduct and delivery of clinical trials to inform and change practice across the world, delivering this expertise to at a personal level to help his patients understand and participate in decisions that involve their care.
Research
Professor Eric Lim has an active interest in clinical and translational research. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed publications in the last 10 years.
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.
He is the UK chief investigator for:
- ‘MARS 2’, a multicentre trial of surgery for mesothelioma, funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research’s Health Technology Assessment programme
- ‘VIOLET’, a multicentre trial of keyhole surgery for lung cancer, funded by the National Institute for Health Research’s Health Technology Assessment programme
- “RAMON” a multicentre trial of surgery as part of multimodality local consolidation treatment for advanced lung cancer, funded by the National Institute for Health Research’s Health Technology Assessment programme
Teaching
Professor Lim is a Professor in thoracic surgery at Imperial College London. In this role, he teaches students about research methods, including how and why evidence-based practice is important. Also at Royal Brompton Hospital, he trains junior surgeons in thoracic surgery.
Professor Lim is well known as the editor of Differential Diagnosis and an integrated textbook of medicine and surgery, published by Elsevier. The core textbooks for medical students and has won many awards.
Memberships
Professor Eric Lim currently holds positions as:
- chair of British Thoracic Society / Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery Guidelines on the Radical Management of Lung Cancer, 2010
- chair of UK Thoracic Surgery Research Collaborative
- co-chair of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery research committee
