Mr Alex Brunelli

Dr. Alessandro Brunelli is a Consultant Thoracic Surgeon and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, St. James's University Hospital, in Leeds, UK. He moved to England in 2014 after working 15 years in Italy as staff thoracic surgeon in Ancona, leading the Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery Unit from 2010 to 2014.

Dr. Brunelli was the 30th President of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) and former Secretary General of the same Society for 9 years. He served as a member of the ESTS Board of Directors from 2008 to 2024 and as International Director of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) (2022-2025). He has been the Director of the ESTS Database from 2008 to 2012 and member of many committees and working groups of that Organization. 

Dr. Brunelli contributed to set up the criteria and process of the European Institutional Accreditation program. 

He is the Author of more than 430 scientific papers with a Scopus H-index of 62 and more than 16,000 citations. 

He has been a member of the Editorial Board of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery and Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 

Dr. Brunelli is the co-Chair of the European Respiratory Society/European Society of Thoracic Surgeons guidelines on fitness for curative intent treatment of lung cancer. 

Dr Brunelli is a highly sought-after lecturer and visiting professor, with recent international teaching engagements in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. He is a strong advocate for evidence-based surgical practice and interdisciplinary collaboration, with a commitment to advancing patient-centered and data-driven lung cancer care. 

His clinical and research interests focus on:

Management of Lung Cancer

Segmentectomy and sublobar resection for early-stage NSCLC

Outcomes of neoadjuvant and perioperative immunotherapy

Real World data analysis

Enhanced recovery and perioperative care

Quantitative risk stratification and prediction modelling

Digital health, patient-reported outcomes and AI in thoracic surgery