Dr. Robert N. Taub

Bio

Robert Taub, M.D., director of Columbia University's Mesothelioma Center, takes special interest in treating malignant mesothelioma and is hopeful about future treatment options. His specialization has led him to constantly strive for improvements in the field of oncology.

"Current surgical and chemotherapy treatments of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma are unsatisfactory," he said, adding that these treatments "have not been shown to significantly prolong survival."

Taub's personal guidance has led to significant improvements at Columbia's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and in the mesothelioma field as a whole. Columbia Medical Center now uses techniques such as intracavitary chemotherapy. In this method, which is used to treat peritoneal mesothelioma, periodic doses of chemotherapy are delivered directly into the abdomen. This treatment lasts 12 weeks and begins when cancerous tissue has been surgically removed.

Taub has been the principal investigator in numerous mesothelioma clinical trials. Since 1999 he has continuously researched the efficacy of multimodality therapy, a method which is now commonly used in treating mesothelioma.

He also began a trial in 2008 to study the effectiveness of targeted radiation in treating pleural mesothelioma. The targeted radiation, he hopes, would kill cancer cells on the surface of the lung without damaging nearby vital tissue.

In addition to serving as director of Columbia University Mesothelioma Center, Taub also works as a medical oncologist and hematologist at Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He has been on multiple editorial boards for medical magazines such as Blood, a weekly hematology journal. He has authored or coauthored more than 130 peer-reviewed articles.

Publications

Nine of Taub's publications focus directly on mesothelioma. In 2008, he published a comprehensive discussion of peritoneal mesothelioma in Current Treatment Options Oncology; his other articles focus more specifically on chemotherapeutic aspects of treatment and prognostic markers for mesothelioma patients.