James M. Church, MB, ChB

James M. Church, MB, ChB, is a staff member in the Department of Colorectal Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. He has been director of the David G. Jagelman Inherited Colon Cancer Registries and head of the Section of Endoscopy at The Cleveland Clinic since 1989. Dr. Church’s specialty interests include all aspects of colorectal cancer and polyps, molecular genetics of colorectal diseases, functional colorectal and anal problems including constipation and incontinence, perianal and perineal infections and inflammatory bowel disease.

He currently is co-investigator of the Collaborative Colorectal Cancer Family Registry, funded by a research grant from the National Cancer Institute. He also is co-investigator of a study examining the usefulness of CT colonoscopy in detecting colorectal polyps.

Dr. Church has been named to the Good Houskeeping magazine Top Cancer Doctors for Women list (1999), Top Doctors in America (1999 and 2000) and Who's Who in America (2000).

He is actively involved in many scientific and medical societies. He is chairman of the Leeds Castle Polyposis Group and the International Collaborative Group on Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer. These two international societies are dedicated to the care of patients with inherited colorectal cancer and research into their disease.

Dr. Church is a fellow of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, American College of Surgeons, Costa Rican Society of Surgery, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, American College of Gastroenterology, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.
A frequent national and international lecturer at scientific meetings, Dr. Church has authored more than 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 22 book chapters on hereditary cancers, endoscopy and molecular genetics of colorectal tumors. He is the author of two medical textbooks.

He received his degree from the Auckland University School of Medicine in New Zealand, where he also completed several post-graduate research fellowships. In addition, Dr. Church completed a special fellowship in the Department of Colorectal Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic.