165 Mesothelioma Papers in Five Years. Texas Ranks Second in the United States. MD Anderson Wrote 113 of Them.
Texas-affiliated authors published 165 mesothelioma papers 2020-2025 per PubMed, second only to New York's 278. MD Anderson alone produced 113.
Texas-affiliated authors published 165 peer-reviewed mesothelioma papers between January 2020 and May 2026, ranking the state second in the United States behind only New York. The count comes from a National Library of Medicine PubMed Entrez query against the standard mesothelioma AND Texas[Affiliation] search, executed on May 11, 2026.
The Texas total exceeds Massachusetts (135 papers), California (134), and Pennsylvania (122). Only New York’s 278 papers, driven by Memorial Sloan Kettering, Mount Sinai, NYU Langone, and Columbia, ranks higher.
Within Texas, one institution does most of the work. MD Anderson Cancer Center authors appear on 113 of the 165 papers, accounting for 68% of all Texas mesothelioma research output. Baylor College of Medicine contributed to 29 papers, UT Dallas to 14, UTHealth Houston to 10, and UT Austin, Rice University, Houston Methodist, Texas Tech, and UT Southwestern to single-digit totals each.
State Ranking: The Top 10
Mesothelioma research in the United States concentrates in the academic medical centers that host dedicated programs. Ten states account for most US mesothelioma publications during the 2020-2025 window. The state-by-state breakdown:
The pattern lines up with the location of major NCI-designated cancer centers. New York hosts Memorial Sloan Kettering. Massachusetts hosts Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s. Pennsylvania hosts Penn Medicine. Texas hosts MD Anderson. California’s count distributes across UCSF, UCLA, Stanford, City of Hope, and the broader UC system, which keeps any single California institution from dominating its state count the way MD Anderson dominates Texas.
The MD Anderson Concentration
MD Anderson Cancer Center, located in Houston, runs the most concentrated mesothelioma research program in Texas. The program spans thoracic surgery (pleural disease), peritoneal surface malignancy (cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC for peritoneal disease), medical oncology, immunotherapy clinical trials, BAP1 genetics, and a tumor biorepository.
The institution’s mesothelioma output overshadows the rest of Texas combined.
The pattern repeats a finding from MesoWatch’s earlier investigation on the Texas Mesothelioma Trial Access Gap: MD Anderson is the dominant Texas center for mesothelioma clinical trials. The same institution drives the research output. The two patterns reinforce each other. A clinical program with high patient volume produces the cases and the biospecimens that feed research, and a strong research program attracts the senior faculty and trainees who run the clinical service.
That concentration carries a tradeoff for patients. Driving distance from Houston to El Paso is roughly 750 miles. A patient in El Paso seeking enrollment in an MD Anderson mesothelioma protocol confronts the same geography that a researcher confronts when their patient cohort lives outside the catchment area.
The Annual Trajectory
The year-over-year publication counts show a clean pandemic signature.
The 2020 baseline opened with 31 papers, reflecting pre-pandemic research activity published during the year. Output fell to 22 papers in 2021, a 29% decline that lines up with the broader US cancer research slowdown documented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Laboratory shutdowns, paused enrollment in clinical trials, and redirected faculty time all contributed.
The 2022, 2023, and 2024 counts of 27, 24, and 23 papers respectively show the field stabilizing without fully recovering. The 2025 surge to 35 papers, the highest single-year count in the window, indicates the Texas mesothelioma research pipeline has now recovered and is producing at a rate above the pre-pandemic baseline. The 3 papers in 2026 through May 11 are consistent with that trajectory if extrapolated across a full year.
What This Pattern Means
A 68% concentration at one institution is a function of how academic mesothelioma research works. The disease is uncommon. Specialist programs require dedicated thoracic surgeons, dedicated medical oncologists, an HIPEC team, a tumor biorepository, and the patient volume to sustain all of it. Few institutions can carry that fixed cost. Those that can become the natural home for research output.
For people with mesothelioma living in Texas, the practical consequence is that the state’s leading research institution is also where the most active clinical trials open. For people living far from Houston, the practical consequence is a 4-to-12 hour drive or a flight to access the same trials.
The research output is what it is. The geography it serves is a separate question and one that anyone evaluating treatment options should factor in.
Frequently Asked Questions
How was this dataset compiled?
The numbers come from a PubMed Entrez E-utilities query against the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database, run on May 11, 2026. The search term was mesothelioma AND Texas[Affiliation] with a publication date range of January 1, 2020 to May 11, 2026. PubMed’s Affiliation tag matches papers where at least one author lists a Texas institution. Each of the 165 returned PMIDs was then retrieved via esummary and efetch to extract authors, journal, publication year, and full affiliation strings. State-level comparison counts used the same query structure with the state name substituted in the Affiliation field. Institution counts were generated by classifying full affiliation strings against a fixed dictionary of Texas academic medical centers. Multi-institution authorship means a single paper can count for multiple institutions, which is why institution totals exceed the 165 paper count.
Why does MD Anderson dominate the Texas count so heavily?
MD Anderson Cancer Center is one of the few US institutions with a dedicated mesothelioma program. The program includes a thoracic surgery service that performs pleurectomy with decortication, a peritoneal surface malignancy program that performs cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC, a mesothelioma medical oncology team, a clinical trials portfolio that includes phase 1 and phase 2 studies for both pleural and peritoneal disease, and a tumor biorepository. The combination of clinical volume and dedicated research infrastructure generates publication volume that no other Texas institution can match. Baylor College of Medicine and UTHealth in Houston, both close to MD Anderson, often collaborate on multi-institutional papers, which raises their counts.
Does high research output translate to better patient outcomes for Texans with mesothelioma?
Research output is one signal of clinical capability, not a direct measure of survival or quality of life. The peer-reviewed papers cover surgical technique, systemic therapy, molecular biology, immunotherapy combinations, BAP1 genetics, and palliative care. Patients diagnosed with mesothelioma in Texas can access clinical trials at MD Anderson, which has more open mesothelioma protocols than any other Texas center. Driving distance to MD Anderson in Houston ranges from a short trip for Gulf Coast residents to roughly 750 miles for El Paso residents. The earlier MesoWatch investigation on the Texas Mesothelioma Trial Access Gap details that geographic concentration.
How does the Texas count compare to other states that lead in mesothelioma research?
New York led the United States with 278 mesothelioma papers from state-affiliated authors during the same window, driven primarily by Memorial Sloan Kettering, Mount Sinai, NYU Langone, and Columbia. Texas ranked second with 165. Massachusetts came in third with 135 papers, with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital leading the state. California was fourth with 134, distributed across UCSF, UCLA, Stanford, and City of Hope. Pennsylvania came in fifth with 122 papers, led by Penn Medicine. Outside the top five, Washington, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan each contributed under 100 papers.
What does the 2021 dip in the trend line mean?
Mesothelioma research publications from Texas-affiliated authors fell from 31 papers in 2020 to 22 papers in 2021, a 29% drop. The drop is consistent with the broader cancer research slowdown documented across US academic medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, when clinical trial enrollment, laboratory operations, and elective oncology workloads were disrupted. The 2022 to 2024 recovery to 27, 24, and 23 papers respectively and the 2025 surge to 35 papers indicate the Texas mesothelioma research pipeline has recovered to pre-pandemic levels.