Richard James Battafarano, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Richard James Battafarano is a thoracic surgeon in the Johns Hopkins Department of Surgery. He is both the Director of the Division of General Thoracic Surgery and Johns Hopkins’ first regional director of general thoracic surgery. He specializes in minimally invasive surgeries and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for the treatment of chest diseases like pleural mesothelioma. His research interests include the optimal management of lung cancer patients.[1]
Education and Career
After earning his undergraduate degree in Biology from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, Dr. Battarano earned his medical degree at Hahnemann University Medical College (today known as Drexel University College of Medicine) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed a surgical internship at Abington Memorial Hospital in Abington, Pennsylvania.
He completed a four-year residency in General Surgery at the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center that included enrollment in the University of Minnesota’s Ph.D. program in Biomedical Sciences, and pursued an additional residency in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and New York Hospital.[2]
Following completion of his education, Dr. Battafarano became Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.
He was also a thoracic surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where he co-chaired the Siteman Cancer Center Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee and the hospital’s Cancer Committee. He then moved on to the University of Maryland’s Greenebaum Cancer Center, where he was head of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and a member of the surgical faculty.
Today, Dr. Battafarano is a thoracic surgeon with Johns Hopkins Medicine and at Johns Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery and the Director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery.
He specializes in treating patients with thoracic cancers, including lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and pleural mesothelioma. He also treats benign chest conditions, like Barrett’s esophagus and severe emphysema.
Dr. Battafarano sees patients at Johns Hopkins Health Care & Surgery Center in Lutherville, Maryland, the Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, and Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC.
Research Interests
Dr. Battafarano’s research interests include improving outcomes in the surgical management of early-stage lung cancer and mesothelioma patients and in the optimal management of lung cancer patients with mediastinal lymph node metastases.
He also engages in basic and translational research regarding the effect of surviving overexpression in the development of esophageal cancer.
Professional Organizations
- American Association for Cancer Research
- American Association for Thoracic Surgery
- American College of Surgeons
- International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
- Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract
- Society of Thoracic Surgeons
- Southern Thoracic Surgical Association
Dr. Battafarano is a respected surgeon, researcher, and educator whose thoracic surgical skills and research have led to improved outcomes for the mesothelioma patients he treats.
