Clearing the Air About Lung Cancer in Women

Dr. Raphael Bueno is Chief of the Division of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and co-director of the BWH Lung Center. He serves as senior surgeon at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. 

As Chief of thoracic surgery and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Bueno is a National Cancer Institute-funded investigator who combines translational research with a general thoracic surgery practice. Dr. Bueno’s primary research involves the development of novel translational tools in genomics that can be used to identify candidate predictive and diagnostic markers for cancer, as well as novel targets for therapy, specifically mesothelioma and lung cancer. Dr. Bueno led a BWH thoracic surgery team to Israel to complete the country’s first minimally invasive esophagectomies and teach Israeli surgeons how to perform these procedures. In 2013, Dr. Bueno performed the world’s first Image-guided Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery (iVATS) procedure on a lung cancer patient. 

Board certified in general surgery, thoracic surgery and surgical critical care, Dr. Bueno earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School where he received the Henry A. Christian award, named after Peter Bent Brigham Hospital’s first physician-in-chief. Dr. Bueno began his graduate medical training as an intern in surgery at BWH, followed by a surgical residency. He completed a cardiothoracic residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and was recruited back to the Brigham to establish a thoracic surgery practice and research laboratory. With clinical interests in mesothelioma, esophageal surgery, airway surgery, and thoracic outlet syndrome, Dr. Bueno has been listed as one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly and named a top thoracic surgeon by Boston Magazine. 

Erika Sward is National Assistant Vice President of Advocacy for the American Lung Association. In this capacity, she oversees federal and state policy on access to care, lung health and lung disease, and tobacco control policy issues for the Lung Association. She also serves as the Lung Association’s lead lobbyist with Congress and the Administration on access to care, tobacco control, appropriations, and lung disease and lung health issues.

Sward is a media spokesperson for the American Lung Association, speaking on a variety of topics – from e-cigarettes to tobacco cessation coverage to FDA regulation of tobacco products. She is regularly interviewed by Politico, CNN and other publications. She has also appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and other networks.

Prior to joining the American Lung Association’s Washington National Office in 2006, Sward served as Associate Director for Advocacy at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, where she primarily worked on advancing federal legislation and policy. Sward was also an analyst for Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a survey research firm, from 1999 to 2003.

Originally from Ohio, Sward received her BA in Political Science and MA in American Politics from American University. She and her husband live in Maryland with their two children, cat and their pandemic rescue dog.