Robert Taylor Ripley, M.D.
Picture
Schedule an Appointment
Positions
- Professor of Surgery
-
David J. Sugarbaker Division of Thoracic Surgery
Baylor College of Medicine
- Meyer-DeBakey Chair in Investigative Research
-
Baylor College of Medicine
- Director, Mesothelioma Treatment Center
-
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
Houston, Texas United States
- Director, Thoracic Surgical Research
-
Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery
- Director, Clinical Trials
-
Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery
- Co-Director, Thoracic Oncology Working Group
-
Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Houston, Texas United States
- Thoracic Editor
-
Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Addresses
- Lung Institute (Clinic)
-
Baylor Medicine at McNair Campus
7200 Cambridge Street
Houston, TX 77030
United States
Phone: (713) 798-6376
lungsched@bcm.edu
- Sugar Land (Clinic)
-
1327 Lake Pointe Parkway
Suite 305
Sugar Land, TX 77478
United States
Phone: (713) 798-6376
Education
- Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center / New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center
- New York
- Residency at University of Colorado Denver
- Denver
- MD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
- Nashville
- BS from Boston College
- Chestnut Hill
- Biochemistry
- Fellowship at National Cancer Institute, NIH
- Bethesda
Certifications
- American Board of Surgery
- American Board of Thoracic Surgery
Honors & Awards
- Star Faculty Award for Excellence in Patient Care
- Baylor College of Medicine
- Norton Rose Fulbright Faculty Excellence Award
- Baylor College of Medicine
- The Distinguished Scientist Award
- Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center
- ‘Top Doctor’
- Houstonia Magazine
- Power of Professionalism (POP) Award
- Baylor College of Medicine
- Professional Educator Appreciation and Recognition (PEAR) Award
- Baylor College of Medicine
- 2016 NCI Director’s Innovation Award
- National Cancer Institute, NIH
Professional Interests
- Mesothelioma
- Slipping Rib Syndrome
- Costal Margin Reconstruction
- Chest Wall Tumors and Reconstruction
- Lung Cancer
- Esophageal Cancer
- Thymoma and Thymic Carcinoma
- Robotic Thoracic Surgery
- Infectious Lung Diseases
- Pulmonary Metastases
- Thoracic Surgery
- Robotic Mediastinal Surgery
- Hiatal Hernias, Reflux, and Achalasia
Professional Statement
Dr. R. Taylor Ripley is a professor of Surgery and the Meyer-DeBakey Chair in Investigative Surgery. He serves as director of the Mesothelioma Treatment Center, Thoracic Surgical Research, and Clinical Trials for the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery. He is a nationally recognized, board-certified Thoracic Surgeon and an expert in mesothelioma, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, chest wall tumors, and chest wall reconstruction. Additionally, Dr. Ripley focuses on Costal Margin Reconstruction for Slipping Rib Syndrome. Dr. Ripley specializes in Robotic Surgery to provide minimally-invasive approaches to thoracic diseases. He also practices all aspects of thoracic surgery including infectious lung disease, benign esophageal disease, and endoluminal procedures. Dr. Ripley received the ‘Top Doctors’ award by the Houstonia Magazine and the ‘Star Faculty Award for Excellence in Patient Care'.Dr. Ripley focuses on the treatment of patients with mesothelioma in which he is the principal investigator of the actively enrolling trial, ‘NEMO: Combination of Induction Durvalumab and Tremelimumab alone versus Durvalumab and Tremelimumab with chemotherapy for Potentially Resectable Pleural Mesothelioma.’ In this trial, patients will receive the maximum treatment to beat this disease. Patients will undergo treatment with immunotherapy with or without chemotherapy, then they will undergo surgery with an extended pleurectomy decortication or extrapleural pneumonectomy, then they will receive one year of immunotherapy.
Dr. Ripley leads the Ripley Lab for Translational Thoracic Oncology Research (Thoracic Surgical Oncology Translational Laboratory (bcm.edu)) in which he focuses on methods to undermine tumors ability to resist treatment. His laboratory is funded with two National Cancer Institute, NIH, R01 grants, ‘Targeting the Mitochondria to Overcome Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Inhibition in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma,’ and ‘Novel strategies to improve mesothelioma therapy’. Additionally, he received an award from the DeGregorio Family Foundation Grant for Gastric and Esophageal Malignancies, ‘Targeting Mitochondrial Resistance to Apoptosis after Neoadjuvant Therapy in Esophageal Adenocarcinoma’ to improve treatment for patients with esophageal cancer.
Prior to his faculty appointment at BCM, Dr. Ripley was an Associate Professor of Surgery at National Cancer Institute, NIH. Prior to the NIH faculty appointment, Dr. Ripley trained extensively in the care of patients with mesothelioma and thoracic cancers under world-renowned surgeons during his fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He also completed a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the NCI, NIH. Dr. Ripley did general surgery residency at the University of Colorado and received his Medical Doctorate from Vanderbilt University.
Websites
Study on Durvalumab, Tremelimumab and chemotherapy for Mesothelioma (H-51512)
Videos
Selected Publications
- R. Taylor Ripley "Extended Pleurectomy and Decortication for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma." Thorac Surg Clin. 2020;
- Xu Y, Surman DR, Diggs L, et al. "Bile Acid-Induced ‘Minority MOMP’ Promotes Esophageal Carcinogenesis while Maintaining Apoptotic Resistance via Mcl-1." Oncogene. 2020 Jan;39(4):877-890. Pubmed PMID: 31570787
- Andrea Bille, R. Taylor Ripley, Dorothy J. Giroux, David Rice, Valerie Rusch on behalf of the Staging and Prognostic Factors Committee, Advisory Boards, and Participating Institutions "The IASLC Mesothelioma Staging Project: 9th Edition Proposal for Clinical and Pathological N Staging." J Thorac Oncol.;
- Deborah R. Surman, Yuan Xu, Min-Jung Lee, Jane B. Trepel, Kate Brown, Maheshwari Ramineni, Laurence P. Diggs, H. Courtney Hodges, Jeremy L. Davis, Hyun-Sung Lee, Bryan M. Burt, R. Taylor Ripley "Therapeutic Synergy in Esophageal Cancer and Mesothelioma is Predicted by Dynamic BH3 Profiling Mol." Cancer Ther.;
- Hyun-Sung Lee; Hee-Jin Jang; Maheshwari Ramineni; Daniel Y Wang; Daniela Ramos; Jong Min Choi; Taylor Splawn*; Monica Espinoza; Michelle Almarez; Eunji Jo; Susan Hilsenbeck; Christopher Amos; R. Taylor Ripley; Bryan Burt "A Phase II Window of Opportunity Study of Neoadjuvant PD-L1 versus PD-L1 plus CTLA-4 Blockade for Patients with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma." Clin Cancer Res.;
- Carbone M, Pass HI, Ak G, Alexander HR Jr, Baas P, Baumann F, Blakely AM, Bueno R, Bzura A, Cardillo G, Churpek JE, ...et al, Ripley RT "Medical and Surgical Care of Patients With Mesothelioma and Their Relatives Carrying Germline BAP1 Mutations." J Thorac Oncol.;
- R. Taylor Ripley, Inderpal S. Sarkaria, Rachel Grosser, Camelia S. Sima, Manjit S. Bains, David R. Jones, Prasad S. Adusumilli, James Huang, David J. Finley , Valerie W. Rusch, Nabil P. Rizk "Pre-Treatment Dysphagia in Esophageal Cancer May Eliminate the Need for Staging by Endoscopic Ultrasonography.." Ann Thorac Surg. 2016 Jan;101(1):226-230. Pubmed PMID: 26603024
- R. Taylor Ripley, Robert R. McMillan, Camelia S. Sima, Saad M. Hasan, Usman Ahmad, Feiran Lou, David R. Jones, Valerie W. Rusch, Nabil P. Rizk, James Huang "Second Primary Lung Cancers: Smokers v. Non-smokers after Resection of Stage I Lung Adenocarcinoma.." Ann Thorac Surg. 2014 Sep;98(3):968-974. Pubmed PMID: 25038021
- R. Taylor Ripley, Caleb Euhus "The Staging of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma." Thorac Surg Clin. 2020;
- R. Taylor Ripley, Paul H. Sugarbaker "Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma." Oxford Textbook of Oncology. 2020;4th Edition
- Feingold PL, Surman DR, Brown K, et al. "Induction of ThioredoxinInteracting Protein by the Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor, Entinostat, Enhances Cisplatin-Mediated DNA Damage and Apoptosis in Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Cells." Mol Cancer Ther. 2018 Sep;17(9):2013-2023. Pubmed PMID: 29934340
- Yuan Xu, Paul L. Feingold, Deborah R. Surman, Kate Brown, Vivek Shukla, Sichuan Xi, Jeremy L, Davis, Jonathan Hernandez, David S. Schrump, R. Taylor Ripley "Bile Acid and Cigarette Smoke Enhance the Malignant Phenotype of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma by Downregulation of the Mitochondrial Membrane Protein, Uncoupling Protein-2." Oncotarget. 2017 Nov 10;8(60):101057-101071. Pubmed PMID: 29254145
- R. Taylor Ripley "Malignant Pleural and Pericardial Effusions." Principles and Practice of Oncology. 2019;
- R. Taylor Ripley, David R. Jones "Biology and Epidemiology of Lung Cancer." Pearson’s Thoracic and Esophageal Surgery. 2019;
- R. Taylor Ripley, M.D., Kei Suzuki, M.D., Kay See Tan, Ph.D., Prasad S. Adusumilli, M.D., James Huang, M.D., Bernard J. Park, M.D., Robert J. Downey, M.D., Nabil P. Rizk, M.D., M.S., Valerie W. Rusch, M.D., Manjit Bains, M.D., David R. Jones, M.D. "Postinduction PET assessment of N2 nodes is not associated with ypN2 disease or overall survival in stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer." J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2016 Apr;151(4):969-979. Pubmed PMID: 26614420
- R. Taylor Ripley, MD, Inderpal Sarkaria, MD, Rachel Grosser, Manjit Bains, M.D., David R. Jones, M.D., Prasad Adusumilli, M.D., James Huang, M.D., David Finley, M.D., Camelia S. Sima, MD Valerie Rusch, MD, Nabil P. Rizk, MD "Pre-Treatment Dysphagia in Esophageal Cancer May Eliminate the Need for Staging by Endoscopic Ultrasonography." Annals of Thoracic Surgery.;
Memberships
- Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
- Editorial Board Member
- Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation
- Board of Directors
- American Association of Thoracic Surgery
- Member
- Association for Academic Surgeons
- Member
- International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
- Member
- AATS Foundation
- Surgical Investigator Program
- Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Member
Log In to edit your profile