Dr. David Sugarbaker

Profile

It was no accident that David Sugarbaker, head of thoracic surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, became one of the world's most noted authorities on mesothelioma.

He was born and raised into it. Sugarbaker was one of 10 children - five of whom became doctors. Growing up in Jefferson City, Missouri, they would listen to their father talk passionately every night about the need to help those with cancer. That was almost 50 years ago.

"The challenge of cancer was a daily discussion at our dinner table. He was a surgeon. And he never quit trying to find better ways to help his patients. It was an inspiration for me at a very young age," Sugarbaker said. "He played a big part in this."

Sugarbaker, who founded the acclaimed International Mesothelioma Program (IMP) in 2002, turned some of his early life lessons into a career that has played a major role in improving the treatment of those inflicted with this deadly disease. His preparation for battling mesothelioma didn't start at Cornell University Medical College, where he graduated in 1979, or when he arrived at Brigham and Women's in 1988. It started at home long before, listening to his father, working on the family's 16-acre apple orchard in Jefferson City, along with all those brothers and sisters.

"There is a lot of work to do in the winter, spring and summer when you're running an apple farm, and very little positive reinforcement," he said. "You have to have faith that there will be a return [in the fall]. The ability to work a long time without anything positive, that's something I learned at home. You had to believe. It played a very significant role in my outlook [with mesothelioma]."

There still is no cure for mesothelioma - and there is a history of frustration and disappointment - but he believes there is now hope for one in the future. Part of his reasoning is the IMP, which combines state-of-the-art clinical research and a multimodality treatment approach, with plenty of resources available.

As I say to patients, when hope is part of the equation, anything is possible," he said. "I remain optimistic that we can, in the next decade, put together the right combination of patients and treatment to effect a cure, which is our holy grail.

Sugarbaker immersed himself in the cancer fight upon his arrival at Brigham and Women's. The nearby shipyards around the Boston area - and the longtime exposure to asbestos there - had produced an inordinate amount of mesothelioma patients for him to handle. And they were dying quickly.

"Early in my career, it was laid at my doorstep," he said. "And I took it as a challenge. Although it was a difficult cancer to treat, with relatively poor outcomes, you had to stick with it. When we started making significant strides, I was drawn to that."

The IMP program grew rapidly, attracting some of the brightest and best from a variety of fields, drawn by the collaborative approach of an international program directed by Sugarbaker.

I tell them [young doctors] that this disease before us is like a block of solid granite," he said. "To try and break it, you can swing a broad pick and get nowhere. Or you can narrow your point and chip away at it. Make progress. Narrowing your focus is one of the keys.

Sugarbaker finds motivation within the success stories of his patients, taking pride in every small step that is taken toward the goal of finding a cure. He also believes that quality life extension is the road to reaching it.

"There are people now more than 10 years out [from diagnosis of mesothelioma]. There are multiple ones three to five years out," he said. "When you're staring mesothelioma in the face and given six months to live, then seeing others a few years out, hope springs up. The fact that someone has gone through it, done it, speaks louder to patients than anything I or other so-called experts could say."

Sugarbaker is seen by his peers today as a leader in the field, often serving as a featured speaker at various cancer seminars. He even appeared in an episode of ABC's "Boston Med" that featured the treatment of a mesothelioma patient.

Yet he also still reverts back to his earlier days, listening to his father, who would come home talking about his patients and the motivation they provided.

"Rather than take pride in what we do, there is really more a sense of amazement with these patients," he said. "People are told there is no hope, yet they are willing to plow forward, looking for answers. Their courage never seems to wane. That's inspiring to me."

Bio

If there really is no higher praise than the praise of one's peers, then David Sugarbaker, M.D., is pretty secure at the top of his class.

"He is Mr. Mesothelioma," said fellow-surgeon Abraham Lebenthal, who works alongside Sugarbaker at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "In this field, he is the gold standard. I don't think you'll get any argument on that."

Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery, Sugarbaker has made malignant pleural mesothelioma the center of his focus for years, pioneering the multi-modal approach to combating the disease, combining surgery with regiments of both radiation and chemotherapy before and after operation.

He also is the founder and current director of the International Mesothelioma Program, the largest of its kind. The program's research, clinical and support divisions attract medical staff and patients to Boston from around the world.

His laboratory has been successful in identifying specific gene ratios in mesothelioma tumors, another step toward his goal of one day finding a cure. By gaining a deeper knowledge of the disease and the clinical subtypes of the disease, he has helped pioneer more tailored therapy programs for individuals.

We are in the midst of a worldwide epidemic of mesothelioma, both in the United States and in Europe, where the epidemic is not expected to peak until 2020," he said.

Now considered one of the foremost experts on mesothelioma, Sugarbaker was involved in the early studies of frozen samples of mesothelioma, identifying particular molecular markers that are specific to the disease. The findings aided the search for earlier diagnosis among patients who have been exposed to asbestos, the only known cause of mesothelioma.

He also was credited with developing and refining extrapleural pneumonectomy, a surgical technique to remove tumors, considerably lowering the operative mortality rate with mesothelioma.

Sugarbaker attended Cornell University Medical School. He completed his surgical residency at Brigham and Women's and his cardiothoracic training at Toronto General Hospital.

He is published extensively in various medical journals for his work toward extending the lives of mesothelioma patients and giving them more hopeful treatment options.

In addition to mesothelioma, Sugarbaker’s interests include general thoracic surgery, video-assisted thoracic surgery, minimally invasive surgery, lung volume reduction surgery, non-small cell cancer and esophageal cancer.

Publications