.png)
.jpg "Baran D. Sumer, MD photo")
Professor and Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Oncology
UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, Texas, United States
Baran Sumer, M.D., is Professor and Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Oncology in UT Southwestern Medical Center's Department of Otolaryngology, where he has served on the faculty since 2007. A specialist in head and neck cancer surgery and reconstruction, Dr. Sumer is also Director of the Head and Neck Oncology Disease Oriented Team at Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and holds the T.C. Lupton Family Professorship in Patient Care. He is also the Program Director for the Head and Neck Oncology and Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery fellowship.
He has participated in a wide variety of research studies devoted to advancing diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and technologies for head and neck cancer such as fluorescent imaging, biosensing, photodynamic therapy, multimodal therapies, and oral cancer surgical reconstruction techniques.
He serves as a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Biomedical Engineering, Head and Neck, Laryngoscope, Experimental Biology and Medicine, International Journal of Otolaryngology, and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He is also an editor for the Annals of Surgical Oncology.
Otolaryngologist Baran Sumer, M.D., leads a team of head and neck cancer experts at UT Southwestern Medical Center offering the latest therapies, including minimally invasive surgical techniques and targeted radiation and chemotherapy.
Thanks to the latest advances in robotic surgery, many head and neck cancers can be removed with minimal damage to healthy tissues.
“These procedures tend to be much better tolerated by patients than surgery in the past, which would often result in problems with swallowing and speech,” Dr. Sumer says. “We perform endoscopic and robotic procedures that allow us to go through the mouth, requiring no incisions on the outside of a patient’s neck or face.”