Reza J. Mehran

Reza J. Mehran is a Professor of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he serves as a senior surgical oncologist specializing in thoracic malignancies. His research focuses on multimodal treatment strategies for esophageal cancer, including neoadjuvant chemoradiation and perioperative immunotherapy combinations, as well as surgical management of lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma. Recent landmark work includes a phase 2 trial of perioperative nivolumab plus ipilimumab in resectable diffuse pleural mesothelioma with ctDNA analyses (Nature Medicine, 2025) and a phase I-II trial of perioperative chemotherapy with atezolizumab and tiragolumab in localized esophagogastric adenocarcinoma (Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2026). He also investigates imaging-based spatial transcriptomics platforms for tumor profiling and time-of-day effects on pathologic complete response. His contributions span surgical outcomes research, translational biomarker studies, and international collaborative trials in thoracic oncology.