Benjamin Drapkin, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

School: Medical School
Department: Internal Medicine
Graduate Programs: Cancer Biology

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Biography

Benjamin Drapkin, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of the Division of Hematology and Oncology.

Dr. Drapkin earned his medical degree and his doctoral degree in cell biology and genetics through the Tri-Institutional M.D.-Ph.D. Program sponsored by Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He completed internal medicine residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and received advanced training through a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's hospital.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in medical oncology, Dr. Drapkin joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2020.

Dr. Drapkin specializes in the care of lung cancer patients, with a focus on small-cell lung cancer. His research focuses on SCLC clinical trials and translational research in SCLC and other aggressive neuroendocrine tumors. His laboratory leverages patient-derived xenograft models to discover new targets and develop new therapies for these deadly diseases. He has published numerous academic articles.

In 2020, he received the University of Texas Lung Cancer SPORE Career Enhancement Program Award and the K08 Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award.

Education

Medical School: Cornell University Medical College (2010)
Residency: Massachusetts General Hospital (2013), Internal Medicine
Fellowship: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (2019), Hematology Oncology

Publications

Myc family proteins: Molecular drivers of tumorigenesis and resistance in neuroendocrine tumors: Hylton-McComas HM, Cordes A, Floros KV, Faber A, Drapkin BJ, Miles WO Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Reviews on Cancer 2025 Jul 1880
KSR1 Mediates Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Tumor Initiation and Cisplatin Resistance: Chatterjee D, Svoboda RA, Huisman DH, Drapkin BJ, Vieira HM, Rao C, Askew JW, Fisher KW, Lewis RE Molecular Cancer Research 2025 Jun 23 553-566
Intrinsic electrical activity drives small-cell lung cancer progression: Peinado P, Stazi M, Ballabio C, Margineanu MB, Li Z, Colón CI, Hsieh MS, Pal Choudhuri S, Stastny V, Hamilton S, Le Marois A, Collingridge J, Conrad L, Chen Y, Ng SR, Magendantz M, Bhutkar A, Chen JS, Sahai E, Drapkin BJ, Jacks T, Vander Heiden MG, Kopanitsa MV, Robinson HP, Li L Nature 2025 Mar 639 765-775
Atypical Small Cell Lung Cancer: A New Malignancy Characterized by Chromothripsis, Carcinoid Tumors, and Wild-type RB1 and TP53: Nadeem U, Drapkin BJ Cancer discovery 2025 Jan 15 8-10
Concerning Safety and Efficacy of Concurrent and Consolidative Durvalumab With Thoracic Radiation Therapy in PDL1-Unselected Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Brief Report: Zhang Y, Iyengar P, Montalvo S, Westover KD, Rashdan S, Donthireddy K, Kim J, Dowell JE, Drapkin B, Bhalla S, Chukwuma C, Nadeem U, Ahn C, Timmerman RD, Gerber DE International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics 2025 Jan 121 68-74
A telomere-targeting drug depletes cancer initiating cells and promotes anti-tumor immunity in small cell lung cancer: Eglenen-Polat B, Kowash RR, Huang HC, Siteni S, Zhu M, Chen K, Bender ME, Mender I, Stastny V, Drapkin BJ, Raj P, Minna JD, Xu L, Shay JW, Akbay EA Nature communications 2024 Dec 15
Jumonji histone demethylases are therapeutic targets in small cell lung cancer: Nguyen A, Nuñez CG, Tran TA, Girard L, Peyton M, Catalan R, Guerena C, Avila K, Drapkin BJ, Chandra R, Minna JD, Martinez ED Oncogene 2024 Sep 43 2885-2899
Concerning safety and efficacy of concurrent and consolidative durvalumab with thoracic radiotherapy in PDL1-unselected stage III non-small cell lung cancer: brief report: Zhang Y, Iyengar P, Montalvo SK, Westover KD, Rashdan S, Donthireddy KR, Kim J, Dowell JE, Drapkin BJ, Bhalla S, Chukwuma C, Nadeem U, Ahn C, Timmerman R, Gerber DE International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics 2024 Aug S0360-3016 03177-8
Mammalian SWI/SNF complex activity regulates POU2F3 and constitutes a targetable dependency in small cell lung cancer: Duplaquet L, So K, Ying AW, Pal Choudhuri S, Li X, Xu GD, Li Y, Qiu X, Li R, Singh S, Wu XS, Hamilton S, Chien VD, Liu Q, Qi J, Somerville TD, Heiling HM, Mazzola E, Lee Y, Zoller T, Vakoc CR, Doench JG, Forrester WC, Abrams T, Long HW, Niederst MJ, Drapkin BJ, Kadoch C, Oser MG Cancer Cell 2024 Aug 42 1352-1369.e13
Acquired Cross-Resistance in Small Cell Lung Cancer due to Extrachromosomal DNA Amplification of MYC Paralogs: Pal Choudhuri S, Girard L, Lim JY, Wise JF, Freitas B, Yang D, Wong E, Hamilton S, Chien VD, Kim YJ, Gilbreath C, Zhong J, Phat S, Myers DT, Christensen CL, Mazloom-Farsibaf H, Stanzione M, Wong KK, Hung YP, Farago AF, Meador CB, Dyson NJ, Lawrence MS, Wu S, Drapkin BJ Cancer discovery 2024 May 14 804-827