Phil Xie
DPhil student
Research interests
Development of tumours is currently thought to be a stepwise process, where normal cells undergo stages of dysplasia before finally becoming malignant cancers. This is particularly the case for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (a subtype of oesophageal cancer), where it has a macroscopically identifiable premalignant stage called Barrett’s oesophagus (BO). The major risk factor for BO is gastroesophageal reflux, where gastric content goes into oesophagus and causes chronic inflammation. I am especially interested in understanding how chronic inflammation transforms the normal oesophageal epithelium into BO-type epithelium, and its contribution to the development of oesophageal cancers.
Background
I studied medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, after which I decided to pursue DPhil studies at the University of Oxford.