Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
1101 Bates Avenue, Houston, Texas 77030
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in affiliation with the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center is a mesothelioma hospital with a section devoted to treatment of this aggressive cancer. The department is the Mesothelioma Treatment Center at Baylor College of Medicine.
Pleural Mesothelioma and Peritoneal Mesothelioma
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
1101 Bates Avenue
Houston, Texas
Dr. Taylor Ripley
Dr. Eugene Choi
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More About Mesothelioma Treatment at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
The rare and aggressive cancer known as mesothelioma requires a treatment program and team with experience to help patients. Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center has three mesothelioma specialists on staff. They see patients through the affiliated Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center or the Houston VA Medical Center. Baylor St. Luke’s cancer center has accreditation with the National Cancer Institute.
“I like to think of the patient’s treatment as a strategy rather than an operation,” Dr. Taylor Ripley, the head of mesothelioma treatment at the institution, said in a video on the hospital’s website. “With multimodality therapy, we give them chemotherapy, potentially radiotherapy, with surgery. Those three aspects are what’s commonly thought of as multimodality therapy.”
The late Dr. David Sugarbaker, a pioneer in treating pleural mesothelioma, founded the Mesothelioma Treatment Center at Baylor St. Luke’s and recruited Dr. Ripley.
Information About the Specialists at Baylor St. Luke’s
Dr. Ripley is Director of the Mesothelioma Treatment Center, a section of Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Eugene Choi is a surgical oncologist, seeing patients through the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is the specialist for peritoneal mesothelioma at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. He sees patients at Baylor St. Luke’s and the Houston VA Medical Center.
- Dr. Taylor Ripley, Director of Mesothelioma Treatment Center at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
- Dr. Eugene Choi, Surgical Oncologist at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and the Houston VA
- Baylor College of Medicine
- Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (Houston VA Medical Center)
- Pleurectomy/decortication surgery
- Extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery
- Cytoreduction surgery with HIPEC
- Chemotherapy
- Immunotherapy
- Tumor treating fields therapy (Optune Lua)
Get Connected to Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is one of the few cancer facilities accredited by the National Cancer Institute. There are only four with this designation in Texas. The hospital’s Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center has three remarkable specialists for mesothelioma.
Why Choose Baylor St. Luke's?
- NCI‑designated cancer center
- Specialists experienced treating pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma
- Treatment offered to veterans with mesothelioma
Protocol for Aggressive Surgery
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center has an intricate process for undergoing mesothelioma surgery or other treatment options.
“Given that it’s a rare disease, most patients are diagnosed or seen by a physician with a low experience with the disease,” Dr. Ripley said in the video. “Most of the patients we see will have a cough or pain or decreased exercise. They’ll be treated by their physicians for a common cold or receive a chest X‑ray.”
Once patients reach Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, they get a personalized approach. This determines the best course of action.
“When they first see us, we do a thorough assessment of the patient as well as the spread of disease in order to see what they can tolerate and what is most appropriate to them,” Dr. Ripley said.
The options for surgery are extrapleural pneumonectomy and pleurectomy/decortication. These are for pleural mesothelioma. Cytoreduction surgery is for peritoneal mesothelioma and pairs with heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC).
Non‑Surgery Options Available for Mesothelioma
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is one of more than 100 hospitals offering Optune Lua. This is a wearable device sending electromagnetic waves through the body. These waves, called tumor treating fields, disrupt cell division and can have a tremendous effect on cancer cells.
Optune Lua is approved by the FDA for unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. It received the green light for mesothelioma treatment in May 2019 and quickly became an option at Baylor St. Luke’s, among other cancer centers.
Other non‑surgical options are:
- Immunotherapy
- Chemotherapy
- Radiation
Doctors at Baylor St. Luke’s may add one or more of these before or after surgery. This is called multimodal therapy.
- Not listed in the U.S. News & World Report 2024‑2025 Hospitals Honor Roll
- High performing in cancer treatment
- Ranked 41st in gastrointestinal cancer surgery
- High performing in lung cancer surgery
- Ranked 4th in Texas
- Ranked 2nd in Houston
Top Ranking and NCI Designation
The Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center ranked 41st in the 2024-2025 U.S. News & World Report for gastrointestinal surgery. The hospital ranked fourth in Texas and second in Houston.
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is also a National Cancer Institute‑designated facility. This label proves the hospital is one of the elite medical institutions in the United States. Only a handful of hospitals receive this accreditation. There are only four with this designation in Texas.
Getting Treatment at Baylor St. Luke’s
Finding any cancer center for treatment is easy. There are hundreds, even thousands, in the United States. Finding one for mesothelioma treatment is much more difficult. Mesothelioma is a rare disease, and you should go to a center like Baylor St. Luke’s with multiple specialists for surgery and medical oncology.
Email our lead patient advocate and registered nurse, Karen Ritter, at karen@mesotheliomaguide.com. You can also get VA treatment from Baylor St. Luke’s Mesothelioma Treatment Center staff if you’re a military veteran with mesothelioma. Email Carl Jewett, our VA accredited claims agent and VA hospital advocate, at cjewett@mesotheliomaguide.com.
Another option is filling out our form for cancer center recommendations. While Baylor St. Luke’s is a great choice, there might be another cancer center fitting your needs. We’ll help you choose the hospital and a specialist.
Sources & Author
- Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved from: https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/tx/st-lukes-episcopal-hospital-6742005. Accessed: 07/21/2024.
- Mesothelioma Treatment Center at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center – Houston, TX. St. Luke’s Health. Retrieved from: https://locations.stlukeshealth.org/location/mesothelioma-treatment-center-baylor-st-lukes-medical-center. Accessed: 05/17/2023.
- Find a Cancer Center. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.cancer.gov/research/infrastructure/cancer-centers/find. Accessed: 10/21/2021.
