The David J. Sugarbaker Division of Thoracic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine is a team of highly motivated, compassionate individuals that pride themselves on providing state-of-the-art clinical expertise for all thoracic surgical conditions. Dr. David J. Sugarbaker, a master surgeon and visionary in the field, established our division in 2014. Many of us have had encounters with great scholars in our career, however, it is with awe that I recount that Dr. Sugarbakers’ research interest included pursuit of the meaning of excellence. It is no surprise that the bar for patient care by our team has been fixed as unassuming, unrelenting excellence, and this philosophy resonates with every one of our faculty and staff.
We treat patients with cancer at the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, which has achieved the highest designation (“comprehensive”) from the National Cancer Institute. Our faculty are exceptionally-trained in cancer surgery, both minimally invasive and major, open resections. We provide patient-centered, multidisciplinary care for individuals diagnosed with all thoracic malignancies including lung cancer, esophageal cancers, thymic malignancies, and sarcoma. At Baylor's Mesothelioma Treatment Center, we provide specialty, comprehensive care for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
We treat non-cancer thoracic conditions with equal vigor and expertise. Our faculty have received advanced fellowship training in the surgical treatment of gastroesophageal reflux and motility disorders, and our center offers a particularly robust experience in per oral endoscopic myotomy (POEM). We additionally offer a busy comprehensive treatment program for patients with thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) and a cutting-edge robotic approach for its treatment.
Our surgeons are devoted educators that provide state-of-the-art surgical training to the next generation. We host an established dedicated general thoracic surgery track within Baylor’s Thoracic Surgery Residency Program and we additionally offer an advanced fellowship in general thoracic surgery.
Our group performs innovative and rigorous translational research, in the clinic and in the laboratory, united by an overarching objective of advancing the standard of care for our patients.
We offer an array of clinical trials including investigator-initiated studies and collaborative multi-center national trials. The Baylor College of Medicine Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratory is NIH-funded and investigates mechanisms of response to immunotherapy and mechanisms of carcinogenesis in thoracic cancers.
Bryan M. Burt, M.D.
Associate Professor and Chief
Division of Thoracic Surgery
Baylor College of Medicine
