Meet Dr. Michele Carbone

About Dr. Carbone

Dr. Michele Carbone is the director of thoracic oncology at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and a specialist in the intricacies of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Carbone has been hailed for his work in identifying the BAP-1 genetic mutation, which makes some people more susceptible to developing mesothelioma and more resistant to traditional treatment.

He believes his findings will lead to more targeted therapies in the future for those select patients, and an awareness of genetic mutations that could reduce the number of cases in the future.

Carbone has been published extensively on the topic and his research has been funded through grants from the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society. According to the NCI, more than half of all federal funding for mesothelioma has gone to his research efforts based at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center.

The American Association for Cancer Research recently published a story detailing Carbone’s mesothelioma research efforts throughout the past decade. His early work began in the small villages of Cappadocia, a region of Turkey where an inordinate number of people were dying of mesothelioma despite no occupational exposure to asbestos, the primary cause of the disease.

Carbone was the director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center from 2008-2014. He served earlier at the National Institutes of Health and Loyola Medicine’s Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center in Chicago.

He is board certified in anatomic pathology in both Italy and the United States.