Dr. Raphael Bueno

Chief, Division of Thoracic Surgery; Vice Chair of Surgery for Cancer and Translational Research

Brigham and Women's Hospital

75 Francis Street
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 732-8148

Harvard Medical School - 1985

Brigham and Women's Hospital - 1993

Massachusetts General Hospital - 1995

Overview/Educational Background

Dr. Raphael Bueno is the Chief, Division of Thoracic Surgery and Vice Chair of Surgery for Cancer and Translational Research at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of the Harvard University College of Medicine where Dr. Bueno also serves as Professor of Surgery. As a 1985 graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Bueno completed a residency program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in Thoracic Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Board certified in 1993, Dr. Bueno spent much of his early career teaching at the Harvard Medical College throughout the 1990’s. Much of Dr. Bueno’s more recent focus has been treating patients of malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer at various stages. Dr. Bueno has studied extensively the behavior of all types of mesothelioma (including peritoneal mesothelioma and pericardial mesothelioma) at a cellular level with hopes of integrating his growing knowledge of cell-level behavior into more aggressive and effective mesothelioma treatment regimens.

Professional Highlights/Clinical Research

Dr. Bueno’s current research initiatives include the investigation of new targets for lung cancer and mesothelioma therapies, as well as the development of tests aimed at detecting cancer and identifying the prognosis of patients with thoracic malignancies following surgery. He is the lead investigator of several ongoing clinical trials, one of which is examining biomarker responses in tumor tissue in surgical patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Dr. Bueno serves today as Program and Research Director of the International Mesothelioma Program (IMP) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School—the largest program of its kind in the world that was founded with the mission of offering patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma the most innovative and advanced treatment regimens available. Much of Dr. Bueno’s research has been published in national medical journals, including the Journal of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery. Among the topics explored in his publications are the molecular pathways and therapeutic targets in lung cancer, chemotherapeutic drug resistance in primary malignant pleural mesothelioma, and gene expression ratio testing targeting the classification of normal lung vs. lung tumors. U.S. News and World Report has recently lauded Dr. Bueno’s research in their physician rankings. Patients with malignant mesothelioma are urged to explore if Dr. Bueno’s expertise in the field may be beneficial to them.

Publications

• Shtivelman E, Hensing T, Simon GR, Dennis PA, Otterson GA, Bueno R, Salgia R. Molecular pathways and therapeutic targets in lung cancer. Oncotarget. 2014 Mar 21.
• Mohiuddin K, Haneuse S, Sofer T, Gill R, Jaklitsch MT, Colson YL, Wee J, Bueno R, Mentzer SJ, Sugarbaker DJ, Swanson SJ. Relationship between margin distance and local recurrence among patients undergoing wedge resection for small (≤2 cm) non-small cell lung cancer. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2014 Apr;147(4):1169-75; discussion 1175-7.
• Opitz I, Bueno R, Lim E, Pass H, Pastorino U, Boeri M, Rocco G, Biomolecular and clinical practice in malignant pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer: what thoracic surgeons should know. European Journal Of Cardio Thoracic Surgery : Official Journal Of The European Association For Cardio Thoracic Surgery. 2014 Mar 12.
• De Rienzo A, Yeap BY, Cibas ES, Richards WG, Dong L, Gill RR, Sugarbaker DJ, Bueno R. Gene expression ratio test distinguishes normal lung from lung tumors in solid tissue and FNA biopsies. J Mol Diagn. 2014 Mar;16(2):267-72.
• Chirieac LR, Barletta JA, Yeap BY, Richards WG, Tilleman T, Bueno R, Baldini EH, Godleski J, Sugarbaker DJ. Clinicopathologic characteristics of malignant mesotheliomas arising in patients with a history of radiation for Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. J Clin Oncol. 2013 Dec 20;31(36):4544-9.
• De Rienzo A, Richards WG, Yeap BY, Coleman MH, Sugarbaker PE, Chirieac LR, Wang YE, Quackenbush J, Jensen RV, Bueno R. Sequential Binary Gene Ratio Tests Define a Novel Molecular Diagnostic Strategy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. Clin Cancer Res. 2013 Apr 18.
• Lee MS, Mamon HJ, Hong TS, Choi NC, Fidias PM, Kwak EL, Meyerhardt JA, Ryan DP, Bueno R, Donahue DM, Jaklitsch MT, Lanuti M, Rattner DW, Fuchs CS, Enzinger PC. Preoperative cetuximab, irinotecan, Cisplatin, and radiation therapy for patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer. Oncologist. 2013;18(3):281-7.
• Sugarbaker DJ, Gill RR, Yeap BY, Wolf AS, DaSilva MC, Baldini EH, Bueno R, Richards WG. Hyperthermic intraoperative pleural cisplatin chemotherapy extends interval to recurrence and survival among low-risk patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma undergoing surgical macroscopic complete resection. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2013 Apr;145(4):955-63.
• Rusch V, Baldini EH, Bueno R, De Perrot M, Flores R, Hasegawa S, Klepetko W, Krug L, Lang-Lazdunski L, Pass H, Weder W, Sugarbaker DJ, The role of surgical cytoreduction in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma: meeting summary of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group Congress, September 11-14, 2012, Boston, Mass. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2013 Apr;145(4):909-10.
• Barbone D, Cheung P, Battula S, Busacca S, Gray SG, Longley DB, Bueno R, Sugarbaker DJ, Fennell DA, Broaddus VC. Vorinostat eliminates multicellular resistance of mesothelioma 3D spheroids via restoration of Noxa expression. PLoS ONE. 2012;7(12):e52753.
• Sugarbaker DJ, Wolf AS, Chirieac LR, Godleski JJ, Tilleman TR, Jaklitsch MT, Bueno R, Richards WG. Clinical and pathological features of three-year survivors of malignant pleural mesothelioma following extrapleural pneumonectomy. European Journal Of Cardio Thoracic Surgery : Official Journal Of The European Association For Cardio Thoracic Surgery. 2011 Feb 8.
• Ou WB, Hubert C, Corson JM, Bueno R, Flynn DL, Sugarbaker DJ, Fletcher JA. Targeted inhibition of multiple receptor tyrosine kinases in mesothelioma. Neoplasia. 2011 Jan;13(1):12-22.
• De Rienzo A, Dong L, Yeap BY, Jensen RV, Richards WG, Gordon GJ, Sugarbaker DJ, Bueno R. Fine-needle aspiration biopsies for gene expression ratio-based diagnostic and prognostic tests in malignant pleural mesothelioma. Clin Cancer Res. 2011 Jan 15;17(2):310-6.