Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

After receiving a Bachelor of Science in BioEngineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Lanuti received his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (where he received the I.S. Ravdin Award for excellence in surgery). He completed his internship and residency in Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a two year research fellowship in a Thoracic Oncology Laboratory focusing on gene therapy for lung cancer. He continued with sub-specialty training, and finished a Cardiothoracic Fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was recruited in 2004 to the staff of the Division of Thoracic Surgery, and holds a parallel appointment as Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He has been the Friedman-Lambert Scholar in Academic Thoracic Surgery at MGH/HMS since 2004.  He is the Director of Thoracic Oncology for the Division of Thoracic Surgery.

Research

Dr. Lanuti spearheads translational research in a Thoracic Oncology Research Laboratory in conjunction with the division of Surgical Oncology and Ken Tanabe, MD. The principle goals of the laboratory are to design novel therapeutics to treat lung and esophageal cancer that can be brought to clinical trials. A primary goal is the use of oncolytic viruses to target solid tumor. Some of these strategies include development of oncolytic viruses that help degrade tumor matrix. Ultimately, this translational effort will strive to bring treatment strategies from the laboratory bench to the bedside and back to the bench again for re-evaluation and improvement.

The study of epidermal growth factor and its influence on biologic functions, particularly the proliferation and differentiation of epithelial tissues, has received tremendous attention. Dr. Lanuti has investigated molecular risk factors for esophageal adenocarcinoma and found an elevated risk associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms in the epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene.

Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

Lanuti M, Sharma A, Digumarthy SR, Wright CD, Wain JC, Mathisen DJ, Shepard JO. Radiofrequency ablation for treatment of medically inoperable stage I non-small cell lung cancer. J Thor and Cardiovasc Surg. 2009; 137(1): 160-166.

Lanuti M, Liu G, Goodwin JM, Zhai R, Fuchs BC, Asomaning K, Su L, Nishioka NS, Tanabe KK, Christiani DC. A functional EGF polymorphism, EGF serum levels and esophageal adenocarcinoma risk and outcome. Clin Cancer Res 2008;14(10):3216-22. (NIHMS71521)

Miller, JC, Shepard JO, Lanuti M, Aquino S, Thrall JH and Lee SI. Evaluating pulmonary nodules. J Am Coll Radiol. 2007 Jun;4(6):422-6.