David Sugarbaker

Sugarbaker grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri, as one of ten children of Everett Dornbush Sugarbaker (1910–2001), a cancer surgeon, and Gevena Ione (née Van Dyke, 1911–2015), a registered nurse. He was the younger brother of the surgeon Paul Sugarbaker. Sugarbaker spent his high school and college years helping his father in the operating room, visiting patients outside of town, and becoming interested in medicine. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in 1975 from Wheaton College in Illinois. He graduated at the top of his class with his medical degree from Cornell University Medical School in 1979 and married Linda Sterk two weeks before beginning his surgical internship. == Career ==

Sugarbaker began his career in 1988, focusing primarily on pleural mesothelioma. Following the completion of his residency training, Sugarbaker was appointed chief at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where he founded and built the first non-cardiac division of thoracic surgery in the United States. The division grew under his leadership to become the largest of its kind in the United States. In 1989, Sugarbaker was a leader in the establishment of the Tissue and Blood Repository at Brigham and Women's Hospital. A year later, Sugarbaker completed the first ever lung transplant in Massachusetts. In 1992, Sugarbaker developed the first general thoracic surgical training track in the U.S. and has since trained over 80 residents and placed about two-thirds of his graduates into academic positions. In 2002, he founded the International Mesothelioma Program (IMP) with the central goal of finding a cure for the disease. The program is the largest of its kind and attracts patients from all over the world. As Director of the Baylor College of Medicine Lung Institute at CHI St. Luke's Health–Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, Sugarbaker led the first multi-specialty Lung Institute in Texas, focused on the treatment of lung disease. Sugarbaker's clinical practice was focused in general thoracic surgery, specifically the surgical treatment of benign and malignant disorders of the lung, pleura, esophagus, chest wall, and mediastinum. Over time, Sugarbaker had refined the techniques of extrapleural pneumonectomy, developed methods to perform intraoperative heated chemotherapy, and conducted multiple clinical trials to establish the appropriate intraoperative chemotherapies to be delivered. His later research focused on improving drugs for therapy of malignant pleural mesothelioma. The goal of Sugarbaker's project was to uncover potential targets for therapy in cancer through the development of new bioinformatic tools and functional analysis algorithms. == Recognition ==

Sugarbaker was known worldwide for his expertise in the surgical management of malignant pleural mesothelioma and of complex thoracic cancers. In 2006, Sugarbaker was awarded the inaugural Crystal Ball Clearly Time Award by the Lung Cancer Alliance. Sugarbaker was a pioneer in the treatment of mesothelioma. He was the first to develop the multimodality therapy for patients with the disease. In 2013, he received the Henry D. Chadwick Medal, the highest honor awarded by the Massachusetts Pulmonary Section of the American Lung Association of the Northeast's Medical & Scientific Branch for meritorious contributions in the study and treatment of thoracic diseases. == Death and legacy ==

Sugarbaker died on August 29, 2018. According to Jacques Fontaine, a thoracic surgeon who trained under Sugarbaker, "His legacy will endure through the accomplishments of all the prominent thoracic surgeons he has trained. He is the mentor of mentors. His vision, focus and dedication to advancing the treatment of mesothelioma have influenced an entire generation of thoracic surgeons." Another thoracic surgeon, Abraham Lebenthal, also trained by Sugarbaker, said, "In this field [mesothelioma], he is the gold standard. I don't think you'll get any argument over that. He is Dr. Mesothelioma." ==References==