Dr. Kiran Turaga
Division Chief of Surgical Oncology at Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Kiran Turaga is a mesothelioma specialist doctor at the Yale School of Medicine, which collaborates with the Smilow Cancer Hospital to form the Yale Cancer Center. He sees patients with peritoneal surface malignancies, which includes peritoneal mesothelioma.
Peritoneal Mesothelioma
Yale School of Medicine
333 Cedar St., New Haven, CT 06510
JUMP TO A TOPIC
More About Mesothelioma Specialist Dr. Kiran Turaga
Mesothelioma is a rare cancer of certain linings of the body, such as around the lungs or abdominal cavity. It is diagnosed in approximately 2,500 people in the U.S. each year, so finding a specialist is a priority for patients.
Dr. Turaga is a leader of helping people diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma. This type of mesothelioma forms in the lining of the abdominal cavity.
Dr. Turaga is an expert in cytoreduction/HIPEC surgery at the Yale School of Medicine and Smilow Cancer Hospital, which jointly forms the Yale Cancer Center. This surgery is a top option for mesothelioma treatment.
Dr. Turaga is the Division Chief of Surgical Oncology and the Assistant Medical Director for the Clinical Trials Office at Yale. He is a mesothelioma specialist at the New Haven, Connecticut cancer center. Dr. Turaga joined the hospital in 2023 after previously working at the University of Chicago Medicine as a peritoneal mesothelioma specialist.
Dr. Turaga’s titles at University of Chicago Medicine included:
- Vice Chief for the Section of General Surgery and Surgical Oncology
- Director of the Surgical Gastrointestinal Cancer Program
- Director of the Regional Therapeutics Program
He was also a professor of surgery at University of Chicago and taught at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.
Dr. Turaga is one of many peritoneal mesothelioma surgeons to receive training at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. This hospital is considered the first high-volume center for peritoneal mesothelioma.
- Medical Degree from All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, 2001
- Master’s Degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, 2003
- Residency at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska
- Fellowship at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida
- Fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
- Received the Department of Surgery Excellence in Teaching award, 2017
Get Connected to Dr. Kiran Turaga
Dr. Kiran Turaga is a HIPEC expert at Yale School of Medicine. He trained at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and completed two fellowships, one at Moffitt Cancer Center. He’s a trusted surgeon for peritoneal mesothelioma.
Why Choose Dr. Turaga?
- Director of gastrointestinal cancer surgery at a top cancer hospital
- Clinical interest in helping patients live past usual prognosis
- Co-authored medical articles on peritoneal mesothelioma
Expertise With HIPEC for Mesothelioma
Dr. Turaga’s clinical interest includes perfecting HIPEC and surgery for peritoneal surface malignancies. This therapy is widely viewed as the best option to improve life expectancy for cases of peritoneal mesothelioma.
“It’s not a very common disease,” he said of peritoneal mesothelioma in a video on the hospital’s YouTube page. “It occurs in about 500-800 new patients every year in the United States. … I think we have an incredible wealth of experience.”
HIPEC is a regional treatment delivering high doses of heated chemotherapy to the abdominal cavity. The therapy, officially called “hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy”, kills cancer cells that persist in the abdomen after surgical removal of the:
- Omentum
- Peritoneum
- Affected organs and tissue
Participation in Important Research
Dr. Turaga’s research is featured in more than 100 peer-reviewed medical articles. Just in the last few years, he has collaborated with fellow mesothelioma specialists on multiple articles about this rare asbestos cancer.
In 2021, he worked with University of Chicago Medicine colleague Dr. Hedy Lee Kindler on learning how much PD-L1 protein expression occurs in malignant peritoneal mesothelioma. He found the expression was higher in cases with specific cell mutation and lower in cases with prior chemotherapy.
In 2014, he reviewed survival after cytoreduction and HIPEC surgery. More than half of patients achieved three-year survival, and around 40% reached five years.
“I do believe we can achieve cures for (metastatic) disease and that drives my practice and my focus,” he said in a video published on University of Chicago Medicine’s YouTube channel. “I believe providing care for my patients requires state-of-the-art care which is personalized and compassionate, but above all I would treat them as I treat my family.”
Dr. Turaga found the survival improved slightly when patients received early postoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (EPIC) through the ports used during HIPEC. This therapy sends cancer-killing drugs back into the abdominal cavity a few weeks after surgery to continue bathing the area with chemotherapy drugs that are harmful to lingering cancer cells.
Immunotherapy Drugs for Peritoneal Mesothelioma
Dr. Turaga led a new study at the University of Chicago Medicine investigating two immune checkpoint inhibitors for peritoneal mesothelioma. The therapies, Opdivo and Yervoy, are approved by the FDA for unresectable pleural mesothelioma.
Dr. Turaga’s study uses Opdivo and Yervoy (brand names for nivolumab and ipilimumab, respectively) prior to surgery. The objective is to assess tumor response to the immunotherapy treatment and how many patients advance to surgery without delays.
How to Connect With Dr. Turaga
Dr. Turaga sees new patients through the Yale School of Medicine system and the Yale Cancer Center. He accepts cases of peritoneal mesothelioma from throughout the country. Despite the rarity of this disease, Dr. Turaga and his colleagues have a high case volume every year.
We can put you in touch with Dr. Turaga and the gastrointestinal surgery team at Yale. Contact a patient advocate through the Mesothelioma Guide website or email Karen Ritter, our registered nurse, at karen@mesotheliomaguide.com.
Sources & Author
- Kiran Turaga, MD, MPH. Yale School of Medicine. Retrieved from: https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/kiran-turaga/. Accessed: 03/08/2023.
- Kiran Turaga, MD, MPH. U Chicago Medicine. Retrieved from: https://bucksbauminstitute.uchicago.edu/bio/kiran-turaga/. Accessed: 11/22/2021.
- Kiran Turaga, MD, MPH. U Chicago Medicine. Retrieved from: https://bucksbauminstitute.uchicago.edu/bio/kiran-turaga-md-mph/. Accessed: 03/08/2023
- Yale Cancer Center. Yale School of Medicine. Retrieved from: https://www.yalecancercenter.org/. Accessed: 03/08/2023.
- Kiran Turaga. University of Chicago. Retrieved from: https://profiles.uchicago.edu/profiles/display/8615164. Accessed: 11/22/2021.
- Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy for malignant peritoneal mesothelioma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Annals of Surgical Oncology. Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25124472/. Accessed: 11/23/2021.
- Heterogeneity in PD-L1 expression in malignant peritoneal mesothelioma with systemic or intraperitoneal chemotherapy. British Journal of Cancer. Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33100328/. Accessed: 11/23/2021.
- A Study of Immunotherapy Drugs Nivolumab and Ipilimumab in Patients w/Resectable Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma. Clinicaltrials.gov. Retrieved from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05041062. Accessed: 12/01/2021.
