Robert Taylor Ripley, MD

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.