Dr. David P. Mason

Bio

At this point in his still-growing career, David Mason, M.D., has completed more than 54 different types of surgery and addressed 47 different diseases. Some of Mason's patients came to him seeking surgery for malignant mesothelioma.

Mason, whose clinical practice is based at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, maintains that surgery is a potential treatment option, even for patients with difficult diseases.

"It would be best to see a thoracic surgeon before surgery is entirely ruled out," Mason explained during a Cleveland Clinic Web Chat.

Since 2004, Mason has worked in the Cleveland Clinic Heart and Vascular Institute, Transplantation Center and Cancer Institute. There he has explored a number of clinical specialties, including minimally invasive thoracoscopic and laparoscopic surgery and lung transplantation.

Mason has performed pleurectomies and pneumonectomies, two procedures which are commonly used to extend and improve the lives of mesothelioma patients.

He also has surgically drained pleural effusions, which are commonly associated with pleural mesothelioma, a complication that can cause a great deal of discomfort to a patient until the fluid is drained from the area and the pressure is relieved.

Mason is a current member of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation.

Publications

Mason's publications have contributed greatly to the scholarly field of mesothelioma research, including a 2011 article entitled "Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma," published in Current Oncology Reports.