Dr. Robert McKenna, Director Minimally Invasive Chest Surgery and Thoracic Surgical Oncology - Saint John's Cancer Isntitute
Professor and Chair of Thoracic Oncology

Robert McKenna, M.D.

Professor of Surgery, Saint John’s Cancer Institute
Director Minimally Invasive Chest Surgery and Thoracic Surgical Oncology
Professor of Thoracic Surgery, Stanford University

Dr. Robert McKenna, Jr., MD, is an internationally renowned thoracic surgeon, who has dedicated over 2 decades in General Thoracic surgery research and clinical care. He has produced more than 250 peer-reviewed publications about many different areas of Thoracic Surgery and 2 textbooks in Thoracic Surgery. His book, the Atlas of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery, is a landmark publication in the field of video-assisted thoracic surgery.

He performed the first minimally invasive (VATS) lung cancer operation in the US in 1992, and, currently, his experience with over 3,000 VATS lobectomies is the largest in the world.

In addition to his busy clinical practice, he is constantly teaching nationally and internationally. He has been to over 40 countries to operate and teach. He runs courses here at Providence St John’s and internationally to teach other thoracic surgeons. After almost 20 years as chief of general thoracic surgery at Cedars-Sinai, he moved to Providence St. John’s to run the Thoracic Surgery Program.