Mesothelioma Doctors

Many consider Sugarbaker one of the nation’s innovators and authorities on peritoneal mesothelioma. The Washington-trained surgeon is best known for developing The Sugarbaker Procedure — a life-saving peritoneal mesothelioma treatment where a surgeon removes all visible tumors from the abdominal area and then bathes that region with a heated chemotherapy solution that kills any cancer cells that remain. He is located in Washington, D.C.

Sugarbaker spent more than 20 years at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he built his reputation as the nation’s foremost authority on mesothelioma. He moved to Baylor College of Medicine in 2014 as the director of the Lung Institute and the chief of general thoracic surgery at Baylor. Sugarbaker died Aug. 29, 2018. He was 65.

Lebanthal, who once served as a battalion physician in the Israeli Army, has taken a special interest in military veterans with mesothelioma. He splits his time between Brigham and Women’s and the VA Boston Healthcare System. He was recruited to Boston to be part of the International Mesothelioma Program, which was started by mentor David Sugarbaker.

Flores became chief of thoracic surgery at New York City’s Mount Sinai Medical Center in 2010, not far from where he grew up years before. Peers rave about his surgical expertise. Patients talk about his regular-guy, bedside manner and the hope he brings, giving them the confidence to fight this disease.

Cameron has pioneered the development of the lung-sparing pleurectomy/decortication surgery that has helped so many patients. He has lobbied relentlessly against the more radical extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery still being done in other centers. He is the driving force behind the Pacific Meso Center, which has its own research and development arm. He also is part of the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare System.

Conway has assumed leadership roles in the treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma. In 2009, he helped the Ochsner Cancer Center in Baton Rouge set up a mesothelioma specialty center for Louisiana. Then in 2017, he became the director of surgical oncology at the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center in Santa Barbara, California.

Fontaine recently became director of the revamped Mesothelioma Research and Treatment Center at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, after joining the multi-disciplinary staff in 2011. He was trained at Brigham and Women’s  Hospital under David Sugarbaker and also worked at the Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I., where he developed a thoracic surgery program.

Kindler is the director of the Mesothelioma Program at the University of Chicago, seeing more than 100 mesothelioma patients annually. Her research has been at the forefront of recent advances in therapy for the disease. “This is not a one-size-fits-all disease anymore,” she said. “We have therapies now that can be tailored to the patient.”

Sterman is the clinical director of the Multidisciplinary Pulmonary Oncology Program at New York University Langone Medical Center. He bridges the gap between medical research and the latest therapies for mesothelioma, a disease he is determined to beat.

At Scott & White Medical Center in Temple, Texas, Shah has carved his niche as one of America’s brightest young thoracic surgeons, quickly earning the respect and admiration of his mesothelioma patients and their families. He has helped pioneer the most up-to-date surgical advances. “Attitudes toward mesothelioma are changing,” he said. “There is real reason now for hope.”