Dr. Harvey Pass
A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Duke Medical School, Dr. Harvey Pass is a nationally renowned mesothelioma expert who currently serves as a member of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at New York University (NYU) Hospital. Trained in cardiothoracic surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Pass has made his mark in the field and has continuously been lauded for his many accomplishments in working with those who are suffering with thoracic malignancies, especially mesothelioma.
Pass spent three years as a senior fellow in the thoracic oncology surgical department at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he was later appointed Head of Thoracic Oncology, a position he held from 1986 until 1996. During his time at NCI, Pass explored the use of intraoperative photodynamic therapy for the treatment of pleural mesothelioma and adjuvant immunochemotherapy after surgery for the disease. In addition, he developed one of the first organized, prospective tissue archives with accurate matching demographics, which was used to begin studies on the molecular biology of mesothelioma.
Upon leaving NCI, Dr. Pass headed to Wayne State University in Detroit, where he built the thoracic oncology program at the onsite Karmanos Cancer Institute. Dr. Pass’s contributions while at Wayne State included extensive research into mesothelioma and its early detection. He conducted novel trials for mesothelioma including the use of a novel antiangiogenesis agent known as tetrathiomolybdate, and, in addition, Pass and his colleagues at Wayne State University were responsible for locating and identifying a protein called mesothelin, which is found at elevated levels in patients that were exposed to asbestos. This discovery would eventually lead to the creation of the Mesomark® assay, a simple blood test that can identify someone as a candidate for developing mesothelioma and better identify the cancer at its early stages.
After leaving Detroit, Pass became the first director of the NYU Division of Thoracic Surgery in 2005 and continues his interest in the early detection of mesothelioma. He currently operates the NCI-funded Early Detection Research Network Biomarker Discovery Laboratory for Mesothelioma, and the Clinical CORE for the NCI’s recently funded Mesothelioma Pathogenesis Program Project, both at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital. He also continues to be a great advocate for those with the disease and their families, speaking at various conferences, symposiums, workshops, and other professional and non-professional gatherings about mesothelioma.
As an author, Dr. Pass has written numerous books and book chapters and consistently contributes articles to prestigious peer-reviewed journals. He also currently serves as an Ad Hoc reviewer for publications including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, International Journal of Cancer, and Journal of Clinical Oncology.