Clifford Suhyun Cho

Dr. Clifford S. Cho is the C. Gardner Child Professor of Surgery in the Division of Hepatopancreatobiliary and Advanced Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School. He serves as a surgical oncologist with clinical expertise in hepatopancreatobiliary and gastrointestinal malignancies at the Rogel Cancer Center.

Dr. Cho earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (1997), completed general surgery residency and transplantation immunology research at the University of Wisconsin (2004), and finished surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (2006). He joined the University of Wisconsin faculty in 2006 before moving to the University of Michigan in 2016.

Dr. Cho's research focuses on CD8+ T cell-based approaches to cancer immunotherapy, particularly exploring histotripsy's immunostimulatory effects and investigating how effector and memory CD8+ T cells impact cancer stem cells. His laboratory has been continuously funded since 2006 by the Veteran's Administration, NIH, American College of Surgeons, and Central Surgical Association.

His publication record includes over 120 peer-reviewed manuscripts, with recent work emphasizing T cell optimization for cancer immunotherapy, CD8+ T cell interactions with cancer stem cells, and novel tumor ablation techniques. These studies primarily fall within cancer immunology, surgical oncology, and immunotherapy research domains.

• C. Gardner Child Professor of Surgery
• Ronald and Patricia Kissinger Professor of Surgical Oncology (previous)
• James IV Traveler (2014)
• AOA Honor Medical Society

Dr. Cho has served as Principal Investigator of a VA Merit Review-funded cancer immunology laboratory and has mentored numerous students and trainees. He has held leadership positions including Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Associate Residency Program Director at the University of Wisconsin. He serves on editorial boards for Surgery and the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery and is a member of over 15 surgical societies including the American Surgical Association and Society of University Surgeons.