Varun Puri, MD, chief of the Section of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a thoracic surgeon at the VA St. Louis Healthcare System, has received the Investigator of the Year Award from the VA St. Louis Healthcare System Research and Development Service. He was honored at the 2026 Research Day event on May 7 in recognition of his contributions to lung cancer research focused on improving outcomes for veterans.
Puri leads a multidisciplinary lung cancer health services research program at the St. Louis VA Medical Center. Supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the program uses extensive patient-level data from across the Veterans Health Administration to study how lung cancer is diagnosed, treated and managed. His research has helped identify the optimal timing of surgery for early-stage lung cancer, define the role of smoking cessation before and after surgery, establish key quality measures for lung cancer care, and improve long-term survivorship strategies for veterans treated for the disease.
“Outcomes in lung cancer are improving with innovations in surgery, radiation therapy and targeted systemic therapy, said Puri. “We are very excited that our collaborative work in the VA is informing practice across lung cancer screening and treatment. Furthermore, we have found that VA healthcare may have better outcomes than the general population and the civilian healthcare system may benefit from adopting certain practices from the VA.”
The program’s findings have informed clinical practice throughout the VA health system and have demonstrated improvements in lung cancer screening, access to care and survival among veterans. Puri and his collaborators also have developed innovative approaches to evaluating surgical quality and are working with VA partners nationwide on projects involving artificial intelligence, lung cancer screening and treatment decision-making for patients with early-stage disease. The research has been recognized by the VA National Oncology Program, the National Surgery Office and the VA Office of Research and Development.