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

Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center

Internal Medicine - Hematology/Oncology
Lung Cancer
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) clinical trials

New Patient Appointment Accepting Virtual Visits or 214-645-4673

Biography

Benjamin Drapkin, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in the care of lung cancer patients, with a focus on small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

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, The Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and received advanced training in the care of cancer patients through the Dana-Farber/Mass General Brigham Fellowship in hematology/oncology.

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

Dr. Drapkin’s research focuses on SCLC clinical trials and translational research in SCLC and other aggressive neuroendocrine tumors. His laboratory leverages patient-derived xenograft (PDX) 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 & Training

Medical School - Cornell University Medical College (2001-2010)
Residency - Massachusetts General Hospital (2010-2013), Internal Medicine
Fellowship - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (2013-2019), Hematology Oncology

Honors & Awards

University of Texas Lung Cancer SPORE Career Enhancement Program Award 2020, UT Southwestern Medical Center
K08 Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award 2020, National Cancer Institute
First-Time Faculty Award 2019, Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas
Grant Recipient 2017, Lung Cancer Research Foundation
Young Investigator Award 2016, American Society of Clinical Oncology
Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Department Award 2000, Yale University

Books & Publications

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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Induced degradation of lineage-specific oncoproteins drives the therapeutic vulnerability of small cell lung cancer to PARP inhibitors
  Kim C, Wang XD, Liu Z, Hao J, Wang S, Li P, Zi Z, Ding Q, Jang S, Kim J, Luo Y, Huffman KE, Choudhuri SP, del Rio S, Cai L, Liang H, Drapkin BJ, Minna JD, Yu Y Science Advances 2024 Jan 10
- Proteomics: A new dimension to decode small cell lung cancer
  Chen H, Drapkin BJ, Minna JD Cell 2024 Jan 187 14-16
- Unfolding the secrets of small cell lung cancer progression: Novel approaches and insights through rapid autopsies
  Megyesfalvi Z, Heeke S, Drapkin BJ, Solta A, Kovacs I, Boettiger K, Horvath L, Ernhofer B, Fillinger J, Renyi-Vamos F, Aigner C, Schelch K, Lang C, Marko-Varga G, Gay CM, Byers LA, Morris BB, Heymach JV, Van Loo P, Hirsch FR, Dome B Cancer Cell 2023 Sep 41 1535-1540
- Chromatin-bound RB targets promoters, enhancers, and CTCF-bound loci and is redistributed by cell-cycle progression
  Sanidas I, Lee H, Rumde PH, Boulay G, Morris R, Golczer G, Stanzione M, Hajizadeh S, Zhong J, Ryan MB, Corcoran RB, Drapkin BJ, Rivera MN, Dyson NJ, Lawrence MS Molecular cell 2022 Sep 82 3333-3349.e9
- Translesion DNA synthesis mediates acquired resistance to olaparib plus temozolomide in small cell lung cancer
  Stanzione M, Zhong J, Wong E, LaSalle TJ, Wise JF, Simoneau A, Myers DT, Phat S, Sade-Feldman M, Lawrence MS, Kyle Hadden M, Zou L, Farago AF, Dyson NJ, Drapkin BJ Science Advances 2022 May 8
- Cell-autonomous immune gene expression is repressed in pulmonary neuroendocrine cells and small cell lung cancer
  Cai L, Liu H, Huang F, Fujimoto J, Girard L, Chen J, Li Y, Zhang YA, Deb D, Stastny V, Pozo K, Kuo CS, Jia G, Yang C, Zou W, Alomar A, Huffman K, Papari-Zareei M, Yang L, Drapkin B, Akbay EA, Shames DS, Wistuba II, Wang T, Johnson JE, Xiao G, DeBerardinis RJ, Minna JD, Xie Y, Gazdar AF Communications Biology 2021 Dec 4
- Subtype heterogeneity and epigenetic convergence in neuroendocrine prostate cancer
  Cejas P, Xie Y, Font-Tello A, Lim K, Syamala S, Qiu X, Tewari AK, Shah N, Nguyen HM, Patel RA, Brown L, Coleman I, Hackeng WM, Brosens L, Dreijerink KM, Ellis L, Alaiwi SA, Seo JH, Baca S, Beltran H, Khani F, Pomerantz M, Dall’Agnese A, Crowdis J, Van Allen EM, Bellmunt J, Morrisey C, Nelson PS, DeCaprio J, Farago A, Dyson N, Drapkin B, Liu XS, Freedman M, Haffner MC, Corey E, Brown M, Long HW Nature communications 2021 Dec 12
- Single-cell imaging of T cell immunotherapy responses in vivo
  Yan C, Yang Q, Zhang S, Millar DG, Alpert EJ, Do D, Veloso A, Brunson DC, Drapkin BJ, Stanzione M, Scarfò I, Moore JC, Iyer S, Qin Q, Wei Y, McCarthy KM, Rawls JF, Dyson NJ, Cobbold M, Maus MV, Langenau DM Journal of Experimental Medicine 2021 Aug 218
- A rational targeted therapy for platinum-resistant small-cell lung cancer
  Drapkin BJ, Minna JD Cancer Cell 2021 Apr 39 453-456
- Advances in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) translational research
  Drapkin BJ, Rudin CM Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine 2021 11
- Lineage Switching: How lung cancer cells change identity
  Von Itzstein MS, Drapkin BJ, Minna JD eLife 2021 10
- Guanosine triphosphate links MYC-dependent metabolic and ribosome programs in small-cell lung cancer
  Huang F, Huffman KE, Wang Z, Wang X, Li K, Cai F, Yang C, Cai L, Shih TS, Zacharias LG, Chung A, Yang Q, Chalishazar MD, Ireland AS, Stewart CA, Cargill K, Girard L, Liu Y, Ni M, Xu J, Wu X, Zhu H, Drapkin B, Byers LA, Oliver TG, Gazdar AF, Minna JD, DeBerardinis RJ Journal of Clinical Investigation 2021 Jan 131
- Studying Lineage Plasticity One Cell at a Time
  Drapkin BJ, Minna JD Cancer Cell 2020 Aug 38 150-152
- SETD1A protects from senescence through regulation of the mitotic gene expression program
  Tajima K, Matsuda S, Yae T, Drapkin BJ, Morris R, Boukhali M, Niederhoffer K, Comaills V, Dubash T, Nieman L, Guo H, Magnus NK, Dyson N, Shioda T, Haas W, Haber DA, Maheswaran S Nature communications 2019 Dec 10
- Identification of DHODH as a therapeutic target in small cell lung cancer
  Li L, Ng SR, Colón CI, Drapkin BJ, Hsu PP, Li Z, Nabel CS, Lewis CA, Romero R, Mercer KL, Bhutkar A, Phat S, Myers DT, Muzumdar MD, Westcott PM, Beytagh MC, Farago AF, Heiden MG, Dyson NJ, Jacks T Science translational medicine 2019 Nov 11
- Combination olaparib and temozolomide in relapsed small-cell lung cancer
  Farago AF, Yeap BY, Stanzione M, Hung YP, Heist RS, Marcoux JP, Zhong J, Rangachari D, Barbie DA, Phat S, Myers DT, Morris R, Kem M, Dubash TD, Kennedy EA, Digumarthy SR, Sequist LV, Hata AN, Maheswaran S, Haber DA, Lawrence MS, Shaw AT, Mino-Kenudson M, Dyson NJ, Drapkin BJ Cancer discovery 2019 Oct 9 1372-1387
- Visualizing Engrafted Human Cancer and Therapy Responses in Immunodeficient Zebrafish
  Yan C, Brunson DC, Tang Q, Do D, Iftimia NA, Moore JC, Hayes MN, Welker AM, Garcia EG, Dubash TD, Hong X, Drapkin BJ, Myers DT, Phat S, Volorio A, Marvin DL, Ligorio M, Dershowitz L, McCarthy KM, Karabacak MN, Fletcher JA, Sgroi DC, Iafrate JA, Maheswaran S, Dyson NJ, Haber DA, Rawls JF, Langenau DM Cell 2019 Jun 177 1903-1914.e14
- Unexpected Synergy Reveals New Therapeutic Strategy in SCLC
  Drapkin BJ, Farago AF Trends in Pharmacological Sciences 2019 May 40 295-297
- ATLANTIS: A Phase III study of lurbinectedin/doxorubicin versus topotecan or cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine in patients with small-cell lung cancer who have failed one prior platinum-containing line
  Farago AF, Drapkin BJ, Lopez-Vilarino De Ramos JA, Galmarini CM, Núñez R, Kahatt C, Paz-Ares L Future Oncology 2019 Jan 15 231-239
- Clustered incidence of adult acute promyelocytic leukemia
  Brunner AM, Kim PG, Sadrzadeh H, Drapkin BJ, Sprague KA, Sloan JM, Chai-Ho W, Bhargava P, Pozdnyakova O, Fathi AT Leukemia Research 2018 Nov 74 47-50
- Genomic and functional fidelity of small cell lung cancer patient-derived xenografts
  Drapkin BJ, George J, Christensen CL, Mino-Kenudson M, Dries R, Sundaresan T, Phat S, Myers DT, Zhong J, Igo P, Hazar-Rethinam MH, Licausi JA, Gomez-Caraballo M, Kem M, Jani KN, Azimi R, Abedpour N, Menon R, Lakis S, Heist RS, Büttner R, Haas S, Sequist LV, Shaw AT, Wong KK, Hata AN, Toner M, Maheswaran S, Haber DA, Peifer M, Dyson N, Thomas RK, Farago AF Cancer discovery 2018 May 8 600-615
- Clonal Evolution And The Role Of Serial Liquid Biopsies In A Case Of Small-Cell Lung Cancer-Transformed EGFR mutant non-small-cell lung cancer
  Mooradian MJ, Piotrowska Z, Drapkin BJ, Dias-Santagata D, Marcoux N, Arnaoutakis K, Nagy RJ, Lanman R, Iafrate AJ, Farago AF, Mino-Kenudson M, Hata AN, Sequist LV JCO Precision Oncology 2017 2017 1-7
- Plasma T790M result alters treatment options in a previously T790 wild-type EGFR-mutant lung cancer
  Piotrowska Z, Drapkin B, Engelman JA, Nagy RJ, Lanman RB, Sequist LV Journal of Thoracic Oncology 2016 11 e95-e97
- Association between baseline body mass index and overall survival among patients over age 60 with acute myeloid leukemia
  Brunner AM, Sadrzadeh H, Feng Y, Drapkin BJ, Ballen KK, Attar EC, Amrein PC, Mcafee SL, Chen YB, Neuberg DS, Fathi AT American Journal of Hematology 2013 Aug 88 642-646
- Trends in all-cause mortality among patients with chronic myeloid leukemia: A surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database analysis
  Brunner AM, Campigotto F, Sadrzadeh H, Drapkin BJ, Chen YB, Neuberg DS, Fathi AT Cancer 2013 Jul 119 2620-2629
- Analysis of the mitotic exit control system using locked levels of stable mitotic cyclin
  Drapkin BJ, Lu Y, Procko AL, Timney BL, Cross FR Molecular Systems Biology 2009 Jan 5
- Cyclin and cyclin-dependent kinase substrate requirements for preventing rereplication reveal the need for concomitant activation and inhibition
  Ikui AE, Archambault V, Drapkin BJ, Campbell V, Cross FR Genetics 2007 Mar 175 1011-1022
- Disruption of mechanisms that prevent rereplication triggers a DNA damage response
  Archambault V, Ikui AE, Drapkin BJ, Cross FR Molecular and cellular biology 2005 Aug 25 6707-6721
- Targeted proteomic study of the cyclin-Cdk module
  Archambault V, Chang EJ, Drapkin BJ, Cross FR, Chait BT, Rout MP Molecular cell 2004 Jun 14 699-711

Research

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) clinical trials
Translational research
Strategies to overcome or circumvent chemotherapy cross-resistance
Elucidation of the mechanism by which lineage transdifferentiation between lung adenocarcinoma and SCLC occurs
Approaches to target loss of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor (RB1), a genomic hallmark of SCLC, by synthetic lethality

Clinical Focus

Lung Cancer
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) clinical trials