Benny Weksler, MD
Dr. Benny Weksler is the System Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, as well as the Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Allegheny General Hospital, as well as a Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine and the Edward M. Kent, MD Endowed Professorship of General Thoracic Surgery. He is renowned for his skill as a minimally invasive thoracic and esophageal surgeon caring for patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer.[1]
Dr. Weksler’s interests include esophageal cancer, lung cancer, thymomas, diseases of the chest wall, minimally invasive and robotic surgery, and surgical endoscopy.
Education and Career
Dr. Weksler graduated from the medical school of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He trained in General Surgery at the New York Medical College Program in New York, and after the first three years of his residency spent two years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a research fellow. He went on to complete his surgical residency and then returned to Memorial Sloan Kettering as a fellow in Thoracic Surgery in the combined New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center/Memorial Sloan Kettering program. He continued his training with a one-year fellowship in Minimally Invasive Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.[1]
Professional Memberships and Activities
Dr. Weksler holds memberships in several professional medical societies, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery.[1]
Research
Dr. Weksler’s research interests include smoking cessation in surgical patients, novel approaches to treat esophageal cancer, and immunotherapy to treat lung cancer. He has published many manuscripts in multiple medical and professional journals in his areas of interest.[1]
Dr. Weksler’s recent publications include:[2]
Neoadjuvant nivolumab or nivolumab plus LAG-3 inhibitor relatlimab in resectable esophageal/gastroesophageal junction cancer: a phase Ib trial and ctDNA analyses. Ronan J Kelly, Blair V Landon, Ali H Zaidi, Dipika Singh, Jenna V Canzoniero, Archana Balan, Russell K Hales, K Ranh Voong, Richard J Battafarano, Blair A Jobe, Stephe…>; Nature Medicine. 2024 Apr 1
Elucidating the Heterogeneity of Immunotherapy Response and Immune-Related Toxicities by Longitudinal ctDNA and Immune Cell Compartment Tracking in Lung Cancer. Murray, J., Sivapalan, L., Hummelink, K., Balan, A., White, J., Niknafs, N., Rhymee, L., Pereira, G., Rao, N., Weksler, B., Bahary, N., Phallen, J., Leal, A., Bartlett…>; Clinical Cancer Research. 2024 Jan 17
To Salvage or Not to Salvage After Definitive Chemoradiation Therapy? Still Waiting for Answers. Whitney A Taylor, Benny Weksler>; The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. 2023 Nov 1
