Clifford S Cho

Dr. Cho is an Honors graduate of Brown University and AOA graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency and transplantation immunology postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, where he served as Chief Administrative Resident. He completed his surgical oncology fellowship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he served as Chief Administrative Fellow. He joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in 2006, where he was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure and named the Ronald and Patricia Kissinger Professor of Surgical Oncology. He served as Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, Associate Residency Program Director, and co-Director of the Gastrointestinal Disease Oriented Team in the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center. He moved to the University of Michigan in 2016 as the C. Gardner Child Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Hepatopancreatobiliary and Advanced Gastrointestinal Surgery, and has held several administrative roles including Executive Director of the Cancer Network of West Michigan, Vice Chair of Surgical Oncology, and Ambulatory Clinical Care Chief at the University of Rogel Cancer Center. In 2024, he was appointed Chief Medical Officer at the University of Michigan Health West and received a joint appointment as Professor of Cell Biology at the Van Andel Institute.

Dr. Cho’s academic focus is on hepatopancreatobiliary and gastrointestinal malignancies, cancer immunology, and the mentorship of clinical and research trainees. He has lectured on these academic interests in over 15 national and international visiting professorships and was named the James IV Traveler in 2014. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and currently serves on the editorial boards of Surgery and the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. He is the Principal Investigator of a National Cancer Institute-funded cancer immunology laboratory that is working to understand the immunostimulatory effects of a novel mode of non-invasive focused ultrasound tumor therapy called histotripsy. His laboratory has been continuously funded since 2006 by extramural support from the National Institutes of Health, Veteran's Administration, American College of Surgeons, and Central Surgical Association, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute Cellular Immunotherapy of Cancer study section. He has held a number of national academic leadership positions and is a member of over 15 surgical societies, including the American Surgical Association, James IV Surgical Society, Society of Clinical Surgery, Society of University Surgeons, and Surgical Biology Club II.

Dr. Cho is the Principal Investigator of a cancer immunology laboratory that is working to understand the immunological and tumor microenvironmental effects of histotripsy focused ultrasound tumor therapy. He has led several clinical trials in novel cancer therapies, and his laboratory has been continuously funded since 2006 by extramural support from the National Institutes of Health, Veteran’s Administration, American College of Surgeons, and Central Surgical Association.