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Frank Detterbeck, MD, FACS, FCCP

Professor of Surgery (Thoracic Surgery)
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Additional Titles

Chief, Thoracic Surgery

Surgical Director, Thoracic Oncology

Contact Info

Thoracic Surgery

330 Cedar Street, P.O. Box 208062

New Haven, CT 06520-8062

United States

About

Titles

Professor of Surgery (Thoracic Surgery)

Chief, Thoracic Surgery; Surgical Director, Thoracic Oncology

Biography

Frank Detterbeck, MD, FACS, FCCP is a Professor of Surgery and Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Yale University and Associate Director of the Yale Cancer Center. He earned a BS in Cell Biology at the University of Michigan, and an MD degree from Northwestern University. After completing general surgery training at the Virginia Mason Clinic in Seattle, he pursued a cardiothoracic fellowship and a fellowship in thoracic transplantation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He rose to the rank of professor of surgery at the University of North Carolina during a long tenure there before being recruited to Yale University in 2005. The major focus of his career has been on thoracic oncology. In particular, he has promoted evidence-based care and multidisciplinary teamwork. He has written extensively on these and other topics, with over 150 papers and book chapters. He holds leadership positions in many of the major professional societies associated with thoracic surgery and has given invited lectures on a wide variety of topics at many institutions and international meetings. Watch a video with Dr. Frank Detterbeck >>

He specializes in the surgical treatment of lung cancer, lung metastases, esophageal cancer, thymoma, mediastinal tumors, chest wall tumors, Pancoast tumors, mesothelioma, and sarcoma. The majority of his thoracic/chest surgeries are performed using minimally invasive techniques. His clinical research includes cancer biology, cancer imaging techniques, prognostic markers of cancers, multimodality (multiple therapies for) treatment of cancer, and evidence-based medicine.

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Fellow
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (1992)
Fellow
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (1991)
Chief Resident
Virginia Mason Clinic, Seattle, WA (1988)
Resident
Virginia Mason Clinic, Seattle, WA (1987)
MD
Northwestern University (1983)
BS
University of Michigan/Ann Arbor (1976)

Research

Overview

Medical Research Interests

Health Care; Neoplasms; Respiratory Tract Diseases

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Frank Detterbeck's published research.

Publications

2024

2023

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • honor

    Connecticut Magazine Top Docs 2016

  • honor

    Connecticut Magazine Top Docs 2015

  • honor

    Listed in “America’s Top Doctors for Cancer”

  • honor

    Listed in “The Best Doctors in America”

  • honor

    Listed in “Who’s Who in Medicine Higher Education (AcademicKeys)

Clinical Care

Overview

Frank Detterbeck, MD, is a nationally renowned thoracic surgeon who performs mostly minimally invasive surgeries for a variety of benign and cancerous conditions that affect the chest. He treats conditions including lung cancer, esophageal cancer chest wall tumors and other life-threatening diseases.

Dr. Detterbeck finds his care often goes beyond performing surgery and into helping patients manage all the psychosocial and other issues that can accompany these diseases. “One of the things I really enjoy is helping people walk down a path. It can be a difficult and scary one. But if I can more or less take somebody by the hand and say we’re going to walk down that path together, it’s a different experience than if they have to go there alone,” Dr. Detterbeck says.

As Yale Medicine’s chief of thoracic surgery, Dr. Detterbeck leads a team of doctors, each of whom is nationally recognized in the field. They use the latest diagnostic technologies and surgical techniques, including some that are available in only a handful of locations worldwide. Minimally invasive and robotic surgeries are making the treatment of thoracic diseases easier to tolerate, he says, even for those patients who were considered too high-risk for procedures at other institutions, or who may have had complications from a previous surgery.

But tools and techniques are only part of care, he says. “In addition to the tests we perform, listening to what a patient has to say gives a lot of clues about what’s going on.” He has learned that patients have different opinions about their care—some are willing to try new treatments, others are very conservative. “Those are important values that need to be part of any decision,” he says.

In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Detterbeck is director of thoracic oncology and a professor of surgery (thoracic) at Yale School of Medicine. He has long been an advocate of evidence-based care and multidisciplinary teamwork. Most recently he served as a leader on a national level in the revision of lung cancer staging, a way of classifying the different stages of the disease. He also played a leading role in establishing guidelines for lung cancer screening.

Dr. Detterbeck has been included on a regional list of top doctors.

Clinical Specialties

Thoracic Surgery

Fact Sheets

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Contacts

Appointment Number
Clinic Fax Number
Mailing Address

Thoracic Surgery

330 Cedar Street, P.O. Box 208062

New Haven, CT 06520-8062

United States

Locations

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