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AATS Member Spotlight

This month's featured member is:




Gaetano Rocco, MD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

General Thoracic

Member Since: 2005


Biography:

Dr. Rocco received his medical degree from the University of Milan in Italy. After general and thoracic surgery residencies at the University of Milan, Dr. Rocco completed a visiting residency and clinical fellowship in advanced general thoracic surgery at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Rocco has served on the thoracic surgical faculty of E. Morelli Regional Hospital, in Sondalo, Italy, and as a Consultant and Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals of the University of Sheffield, England. Dr. Rocco then served as the Chief of Thoracic Surgery and Chair of the Department of Thoracic Surgery and Oncology at the National Cancer Institute of Naples, Italy. In 2018, Dr. Rocco joined the faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering as an Attending in the Thoracic Service, Department of Surgery, and as a Full Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Dr. Rocco is a past President of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons and served as Editor, Director of Education, co-founder of the ESTS Thoracic School and Treasurer of the same organization. Dr. Rocco has been an Associate Editor of the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery as well as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery; currently, he is a co-Editor of Shields' General Thoracic Surgery textbook. His visiting professorships include several international institutions in the US, Europe and Asia.

Dr. Rocco's research currently focuses on new technologies for the early detection of lung cancer, championing the use of electronic nose technology for the early detection of lung cancer and the assessment of response to treatment, for which he was awarded an R21 grant by the National Institutes of Health in 2024. He has authored or co-authored over 400 peer-reviewed articles, wrote several textbook chapters, played a lead role in 20-plus clinical trials, and given more than 300 invited lectures around the world.

Upcoming to be featured

Thierry-Pierre Carrel

University of Basel

Member Since: 2004

Minjie Ma

The First Hospital Of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou University First Clinical Medical College

Member Since: 2026

Todd K. Rosengart

Baylor College of Medicine

Member Since: 1999

Previously Featured Members

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Paul A. Kurlansky

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Member Since: 2004

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