Phillip A. Tibbs MD

Phillip A. Tibbs, Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Kentucky, was born in Covington, KY on October the 16, 1948. Dr. Tibbs was valedictorian of his high school class and Honors graduate of Thomas More College in 1969. He moved to Lexington, KY to start his medical career in 1969 graduating with honors from the University of Kentucky of Medicine in 1973. Dr. Tibbs did his internship in surgery and a five year residency in Neurosurgery at the University of Kentucky, graduating in 1979 at which time he joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Tibbs became board certified in Neurosurgery in 1982. Although trained in all aspects of Neurosurgery, Dr. Tibbs became interested with spinal disorders including biomechanics of degenerative change, fractures and the effects of cancer on the spine.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Tibbs and his long-time research collaborator Dr. Roy Patchell have focused on the effects of metastatic cancer on the central nervous system. Their land-mark prospective randomized clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1990 established the current standard of care for surgical treatment of metastatic brain tumors. Subsequently, another randomized clinical trial was published in JAMA defining the indications for whole brain radiotherapy for metastatic brain tumors. Dr. Tibbs and Dr. Patchell were also the principal investigators of a multi-center, National Institute of Health-funded prospective randomized trial of surgery plus radiation versus radiation therapy alone for treatment of metastatic epidural spinal cord compression. This was published to international acclaim in The Lancet in 2005.