AN INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR PAUL GLEN​

Abstract

Professor Paul Glen is an upper gastrointestinal surgeon who works at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, with interests in oesophageal cancer, cancer palliation, Barrett’s oesophagus and ERCP. He also holds the position of Honorary ClinicalAssociate Professor at Glasgow Medical School and is Year 4 lead. We caught up withProfessor Glen earlier this month with to learn a bit more about his work and how he ended up such a well-known face at MedChir.​

1) What got you into medicine, was it always along-term ambition or did it come later atSchool/was there a lifetime event that motivated you? ​

    I went to school in Strathaven and there weren’t loads of people that studied medicine or law from there, but I was good at science and was advised that medicine would be a good thing to go for.  No one in my family wasa doctor so the only things I knew about it was what I had seen on television dramas or in books.  It seemed like a good thing to go for soI applied for medicine. I didn’t get accepted to Glasgow at first, I think because one of my Highers was Music, but my school Chemistry teacher Mr Steele wrote a letter on my behalf and I was offered a place in Glasgow.  This was my preferred choice and I thought it would have been a bit warmer than Aberdeen who had accepted me, Music higher and all.​

2) At medical school I see you were once a president of MedChir, have you any highlights from your time on committee? ​

    When I was at medical school, I wasn’t the hardest worker or getting the highest marks in exams but I did really like the social aspect of the school and the job. I went to the MedChir day in freshers week and was amazed that all the clinical year students would speak to the new people and made quite a few friends across the years that year.  MedChir was great for getting to know people in your own year and in the years above and below.  In third year I knew pretty much all of my year, and a

good number of people in the two years above and two years below.  This made nipping outto the shop a bit tricky as I would bump into so many people I knew and sometimes get way laid and dragged into the union.  I loved the Revue and our year would get together onSaturdays to start writing our sketches fromJanuary onwards to try and win. In those days each year was allocated 20 minutes and had to perform and keep the attention of the quite demanding audience. ​

3) Becoming an upper GI general surgeonmust have been a demanding training pathway across many years. During that time what has changed and what are you yet to see advance? ​

    I was attracted to upper GI surgery by the variety of options we had for treatment.  For example, gallstones may require medical treatment, endoscopic treatment, laparoscopic surgery or open surgery and I like having theability to offer all these and work out with the patient what is the best option for them.  One thing I have noticed is that surgery for quality of life, which is a large part of my work, has been given less priority. I operate on patients with difficulty swallowing, bad reflux or stomachs that don’t empty and this is a significant impact on quality of life but patients will not die because they don’t get an operation. Whenever there is a list that requires cancelled due to lack of beds or lack of staff and my colleagues have cancer operations, it is my lists that suffer and we do see patients waiting for up to two years for quality of life surgery.  I think we will see a move from procedures that require hospitalisation; towards endoscopic or day case surgery treatment for these conditions due to the pressures on acute hospital beds.​

    4) Tell us about the Cytosponge and it’s rolein your clinical practice. ​

Sponge sampling of the oesophagus has been about for a while but only used in the trial setting.  A sponge, compressed in a gelatin capsule attached to a bit of string is swallowed and the capsule dissolves in the stomach. The sponge expands and samples the oesophagus on the way up as it is pulled out.  WhenCOVID happened I was worried about all the patients with barretts out there as we were not doing any elective endoscopy at all, only emergency, and a number of them would have worsening pathology.  ​

We introduced sponge testing across Scotland and published our outcomes in thereal world setting. We know oesophageal adenocarcinoma has a very poor outcome and that it has this at least 10 year lead condition ofBarretts.  Anything we can do to identify it earlier, without overburdening our endoscopy service, is important in improving outcomes.​

References:​

1.“Pill on a string” test to transform oesophageal cancer diagnosis [Internet]. University of Cambridge. 2020 [cited 2026 Mar 9]. Available from: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/pill-on-a-string-test-to-transform-oesophageal-cancer-diagnosis​

1. Cytosponge - Cytosponge Test - Heartburn Cancer UK [Internet]. Heartburn Cancer UK - Raising Awareness - Savings Lives. 2020 [cited 2026 Mar 9]. Available from: https://heartburncanceruk.org/latest-updates/research/cytosponge/​