About David Sugarbaker

Dr. David Sugarbaker was a renowned surgical oncologist and thoracic surgeon who founded the Division of General Thoracic Surgery and the Baylor College of Medicine Lung Institute at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, as well as the Mesothelioma Treatment Center (MTC) at Baylor College of Medicine. He was an expert in the field of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) and was known for developing medical and surgical treatments for benign and malignant thoracic and esophageal diseases.

Before joining Baylor, Dr. Sugarbaker held the position of founding chief of the Division of General Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and was the Richard E. Wilson Chair of Surgery at Harvard University. He was considered a pioneer in the field of thoracic surgery, known for refining the techniques of extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), developing methods to perform intraoperative heated chemotherapy, and creating clinical trials to establish working intraoperative chemotherapies. Dr. Sugarbaker's later research focused on improving drugs for therapy of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

In 1992, Dr. Sugarbaker established the first general thoracic surgical residency program in the United States and trained over 80 residents, many of whom went on to become leaders in the field. He received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Pioneer Award from the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation in 2012, and held the position of 94th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). He also authored “Adult Chest Surgery,” now in its third edition and titled “Sugarbaker’s Adult Chest Surgery.” Dr. Sugarbaker's clinical interests included video-assisted thoracic surgery, minimally invasive surgery, lung volume reduction surgery, and general thoracic surgery.

Dr. Sugarbaker passed away on August 29, 2018.