Kyoji Hirai, MD, PhD is a clinical researcher and thoracic surgeon.
He graduated from Nippon Medical School and is a clinical professor of division of thoracic surgery at Nippon Medical School Chiba Hokusoh Hospital. He is a frequent speaker at several medical conferences related to the operative procedure of thoracoscopic surgery and clinical research on thoracic surgery. He is the investigator of a study assessing the less-invasive effects of thoracoscopic surgery and of a study on an oncoprotein, tumor suppressor gene maspin in non-small cell lung cancer. He has multidiscipline achievements on myocardial ischemia and cell adhesion molecules, matrix protease and tumor neovascularization relevant to cancer development and invasion. He also introduced a new method “video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy with lateral thoracotomy for stage II and III thymoma”.

Dr. Hirai recieved some honors and awards including a Maruyama Memorial Grant,, Kato Memorial Bioscience Grant and Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research.
Dr. Hirai is a councilor and supervisory doctor of the Japanese Thoracic Association for chest Surgery, Japan Surgical Society and a member of International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and a member of American Association for Cancer Research.

Recent publications:
1. Kyoji H. Takayuki I, Ryuzo B, Kiyoshi K, Kazuo S. video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy with lateral thoracotomy for stage II and III thymoma. Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2013 19:79-82
2. Kyoji H, Takayuki I, Ryuzo B, Kiyoshi K, Kazuo S.
Use of the” Secrea(Hogy TM)” sponge spacer in thoracoscopic surgery for lung cance
J Surg Oncol. 2011 104:857-858
3. Kyoji H ,Kiyoshi K, Shuji H, Tomomi H,Iwao M, FukushimaM, Shigeki　Y Kazuo S,Masashi K (2005)　 Prognostic Significance of the Tumor Suppressor Gene Maspin in Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer.　Ann Thoracic Surg. 2005 79:248-53