John C. Kucharczuk, MD
Dr. John C. Kucharczuk is a thoracic surgeon with expertise in treating patients with lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and other thoracic malignancies including malignant pleural mesothelioma. He practices at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, where he is the director of the Thoracic Oncology Network of the Abramson Cancer Center; the Director of the Integrated Thoracic Oncology Program; and the Carole and Stuart Potter Associate Professor in BRCA Clinical Care.[2]
Dr. Kucharczuk participates in Penn’s Esophageal and Foregut Surgery Services; its Gastrointestinal Cancer Program; its Lung Cancer Program; the Lung Nodule Program; and the Thoracic Surgery Program. He has expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of benign and malignant diseases of the chest including lung cancer, esophageal cancer, mesothelioma, and mediastinal tumors, and performs a high volume of traditional and minimally invasive thoracic surgical procedures.[1]
Professional Memberships and Activities
Dr. Kucharczuk is active in numerous professional societies, including:[2]
- American Board of Thoracic Surgery General Thoracic, National
- American Board of Thoracic Surgery, National
- American College of Surgeons, National
- American Joint Council on Cancer (AJCC), National
- Association of Academic Surgeons, National
- General Thoracic Surgery Biology Club, National
- General Thoracic Surgery Club, National
- National Institutes of Health, National
- Society of Thoracic Surgeons Workforce on National Database, National
- Society of Thoracic Surgeons, National
He is also a member of the Resident Work Hours Task Force for the Department of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and a member of the Faculty Annual Giving Appeal Committee for the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Research
Dr. Kucharczuk is an active member of the Thoracic Oncology Research Laboratory at Penn, where he serves as the educational coordinator for the Thoracic Surgery Service and is involved in several basic as well as clinical research projects. His specific research interests include adjuvant treatment for lung cancer, tri-modality treatment for esophageal cancer, quality outcome measures in thoracic surgery, benchmarking outcomes in thoracic surgery, and thoracic surgery education.[1]
Dr. Kucharczuk’s recent publications include:[1]
Kucharczuk JC, Kaiser LR: Bronchoplastic procedures. Robb & Smith’s Operative Surgery. Oxford, UK: Butterworth & Heineman Ltd. 2023 (in press). Kucharczuk JC, Kaiser LR: Flexible and rigid bronchoscopy. Robb & Smith’s Operative Surgery. Oxford, UK: Butterworth & Heineman Ltd. 2023 (in press).
Simone CB, Yegya-Raman N, Manjunath S, Verma V, Shabason JE, Xu L, Cengel KA, Levin WP, Berman AT, Christodouleas JP, Aggarwal C, Cohen RB, Langer CJ, Pechet TT, Singal S, Kucharczuk JC, Rengan R, Feigenberg SJ: Prospective feasibility and phase I/II trial of preoperative proton beam therapy with concurrent chemotherapy for resectable stage IIIA or superior sulcus non-small cell lung cancer. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics May 16 2023 (Epub) Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2023.05.016.
Azari F, Zhang K, Kennedy G, Bou-Samra P, Chang A, Nadeem B, Chang A, Galandarova A, Ibrahimli A, Karimov Z, Din A, Kucharczuk J, Doraid J, Pechet T, Delikatny E, Singhal S: Prospective validation of tumor folate receptor expression density with the association of pafolacianine fluorescence during intraoperative molecular imaging-guided lung cancer resections. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging 50(8): 2453-2465, July 2023 Notes: Epub Mar. 11, 2023.
Kennedy GT, Azari FS, Chang A, Nadeem B, Bernstein E, Segil A, Din A, Desphande C, Okusanya O, Keating J, Predina J, Newton A, Kucharczuk JC, Singhal S: Single-institution experience of 500 pulmonary resections guided by intraoperative molecular imaging. Journal of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery 165(6): 1928-1938.e1, June 2023 Notes: Epub Jan. 30, 2023.
Kim KN, Heintz J, Yegya-Raman N, Cohen R, Kegelman T, Cengel K, Marmarelis M, Sun L, Langer C, Aggarwal C, Singh A, Singhal S, Kucharczuk J, Robinson K, Feigenberg S: Toxicities and deaths from intercurrent disease following contemporary postoperative radiotherapy in resected non-small-cell lung cancer. Clinical Lung Cancer 24(2): e78-e86, Mar. 2023 Notes: Epub Dec. 25, 2022.
Kennedy GT, Azari FS, Bernstein E, Deshpande C, Kucharczuk JC, Delikatny EJ, Singhal S: Three-dimensional near-infrared specimen mapping can identify the distance from the tumor to the surgical margin during resection of pulmonary ground glass opacities. Molecular Imaging & Biology 25(1): 203-211, Feb. 2023 Notes: Epub July 13, 2022.
