Ralph Bueno, MD
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Ralph Bueno is a teaching affiliate at the Harvard University College of Medicine and the Associate Chief of Medicine in the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He serves as the Director of the Photodynamic Therapy Program and the Program Manager of the Thoracic Immediate Care Unit. Dr. Bueno continues to work to develop more effective and aggressive treatments for mesothelioma, and is an established leader in the field of malignant mesothelioma treatment.
Raja M. Flores, MD
The Mount Sinai Medical Center
Dr. Raja M. Flores, the Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery, Ames Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, is a recognized leader in the field of thoracic surgery. He is especially renowned for his pioneering work in treatment for mesothelioma. Many physicians consider Dr. Flores’ work in establishing a minimally invasive treatment, known as the VATS lobectomy, as the gold standard in the surgical treatment of lung cancer. Dr. Flores has also intensely researched malignant pleural mesothelioma management as well as sophisticated surgical techniques for lung cancer treatment that a minimally invasive. He serves on several editorial boards and is also a member of several medical and surgical societies.
Steven M. Hahn, MD
University of Pennsylvania – Perelman School of Medicine
Dr. Steven Hahn, who is board certified in internal medicine, radiation oncology and medical oncology, earned his MD with honors from Temple University. He started as an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine in 1996 and was later promoted to a full professor. He eventually became chairman of the department in 2005. His clinical interests include the areas of soft tissue sarcoma, prostate cancer, lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Hedy Kindler, MD
University of Chicago Medicine
Dr. Hedy Kindler is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center in the department of hematology/oncology and the Director of the Mesothelioma Program. Dr. Kindler participated in a fellowship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a facility that is dedicated to fighting all forms of cancer, after completing her internship and residency at the UCLA Medical Center. At the University of Chicago Medical Center, she is now developing research on new drugs that will help treat mesothelioma. Part of her interest in the treatment of mesothelioma came about when she lost her father to the disease in 2001. Dr. Kindler is also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (iMig) and serves on the Science Advisory Board of the Meso Foundation (formerly MARF).
Lee Krug, MD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Krug is the director of the mesothelioma program at the Division of Thoracic Oncology, department of medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he is also an associate attending physician. He is currently investigating the possibility of treating mesothelioma with chemotherapy followed by pleural radiation. He has previously researched multimodality approaches for patients in the early stages of malignant pleural mesothelioma and also led a multicenter U.S. trial of induction chemotherapy for mesothelioma patients. Dr. Krug also helped establish the clinical treatment guides for mesothelioma of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).
Brian Loggie, MD
Creighton University Medical School
Dr. Brian Loggie, one of the pioneers of the treatment of mesothelioma, is the Chief of Surgical Oncology at the Creighton University School of Medicine. He developed intraperitoneal chemotherapy (also known as heated chemotherapy), a form of mesothelioma treatment. Dr. Loggie, who is also director of cancer biology and professor of surgery at Creighton University Medical School, leads a highly skilled team of nurses in doctors who are devoted to developing innovative peritoneal mesothelioma treatment methods.
Harvey I. Pass, MD
New York University
Dr. Harvey I. Pass is Director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and Thoracic Oncology; the Vice Chairman, Research, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery; and the Stephen E. Banner Professor of Thoracic Oncology at the NYU Langone Medical Center and School of Medicine. Dr. Pass attended Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his undergraduate degree, and earned his medical degree from Duke University Medical School. He was a Professor of Surgery and Oncology for Wayne State University and the Karmanos Cancer Institute before he moved to New York. Since 1998, he has been frequently honored by receiving grants from the National Cancer Institute for the Centers of Disease Control, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has also earned several awards during his illustrious career, including the NIH Directors Award, the Presidents Award for Clinical Research at Karmanos Cancer Institute, the Landon Award for International Science from the AACR, the Pioneer Award from the Mesothelioma Foundation (formerly MARF), and the Wagner Medal from the International Mesothelioma Interest Group. In addition, Dr. Pass also serves as a board member for the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and the Lung Cancer Alliance, the International Mesothelioma Interest Group and the Addario Foundation.
David Rice, MD
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. David Rice is an Associate Professor at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Dr. Rice completed a fellowship in tumor immunology and also completed his general surgery residency at the Mayo Clinic in 1999. He studied the possible outcomes that the stimulating of T-cells in the immune system produced during this time. While completing another residency program in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, he became Chief Resident. Dr. Rice is board-certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgeons, The American Board of Surgery, the Texas State Board of Examiners and the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice. Presently, Dr. Rice holds the title of Director for both minimally invasive surgery and the mesothelioma program at M.D. Anderson.
Daniel Sterman, MD
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
Dr. Daniel Sterman currently serves as Associate Professor of Medicine in Surgery, Associate Professor of Medicine, the Director of the PENN Interventional Pulmonology Program and Clinical Director of the Thoracic Oncology Gene Therapy Program at the Center for Lung Cancer and Related Disorders of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. His primary focus of research is in the translation of laboratory discoveries from the medical world directly to patients. Dr. Sterman focuses on conducting clinical trials that study the impact of gene therapy and vaccine therapy several issues associated with the lungs, including lung cancer and mesothelioma.
David J. Sugarbaker, MD
Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Dr. David J. Sugarbaker is the Philip E. Lowe Senior at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgical Oncology at Harvard Medical School. He earned his degrees from Wheaton College and Cornell University Medical College. He returned to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston as the head of the newly formed Division of Thoracic Surgery following his training.
The Division of Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s has grown into one of the largest in the nation under the leadership of Dr. Sugarbaker, seeing more than 3,700 cases a year. He pioneered an innovative, radical surgery where all of the cancerous tumors are removed from a mesothelioma patient known as extrapleural pneumonectomy. He is the founder and director of the International Mesothelioma Program (IMP) at Brigham and Women’s and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sugarbaker speaks at numerous lectures at various hospitals, association and society meetings throughout Australia, China, Europe, Japan and the United States.
Paul Sugarbaker, MD
Washington Hospital Center
Dr. Paul Sugarbaker is the Director of Surgical Oncology and a Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncologist at the Washington Cancer Institute. He specializes in the treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma by applying a combination of cytoreductive surgery with intraperitoneal and systemic chemotherapy. He is also a highly accomplished author with over 780 articles, reports and scholarly and scientific books published to date. Dr. Sugarbaker continues clinical research on rare diseases such as peritoneal mesothelioma, pseudomyxoma peritoneal, abdominal sarcomas and peritoneal carcinomatosis at the Washington Hospital Center.
Robert Taub, MD
NY Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center
Dr. Robert Taub is a hematologist, medical oncologist and also serves as the Director of the Mesothelioma Center at the NY-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center. He specializes in medical treatment and research for patients with mesothelioma. Dr. Taub is also currently developing surgical and chemotherapeutic techniques aimed at improving mesothelioma treatment. His is specifically researching multimodal treatment algorithms with a focus on intracavitary chemotherapy to treat peritoneal mesothelioma. Dr. Taub is also developing lung-preserving therapies for pleural mesothelioma. He has significantly aided in the advancement of comprehensive treatments for mesothelioma patients working to develop patient-specific approaches to reach the maximum efficacy for each specific patient. He has been presented awards by the American Cancer Society, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Beth Israel Cancer Research fund and has also taken part in the development in several experimental mesothelioma treatments.
Dr. Mei-Yoong Yap, MD
Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center, Bellflower CA
Dr. Mei-Yoong Yap is a medical oncologist at the Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center, specializing in internal medicine. Dr. Yap is board certified in internal medicine and has over 27 years of experience in treating patients with mesothelioma and other forms of lung cancer.