Gavitt A. Woodard, MD

Gavitt Woodard, MD, is a thoracic surgeon who treats diseases that affect the chest. She specializes in the care of patients with lung cancer, and approaches each new patient as part of a multidisciplinary care team that also includes oncologists and radiation oncologists.

Patients are sometimes surprised to learn that lung cancer has undergone a “complete revolution” in the past decade, with screening CT scans, robotic surgery, genetic testing, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy, Dr. Woodard explains. “The vast majority of our early-stage lung cancer operations are done robotically with small incisions, less pain, and faster recovery times,” she says, adding that robotic technology is only going to improve with time.

Dr. Woodard says she always wanted to become a physician, but didn’t decide to become a surgeon until she was 16 years old and had surgery herself. “I love that surgery directly fixes a problem, the result is immediate, and it is so satisfying,” she says. “I considered many surgical specialties but was drawn to thoracic surgery because of the great lung anatomy, lung cancer biology, and the complexity of the operations.”

An assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Woodard performs research on biomarkers of early-stage lung cancer and on the tumor immune microenvironment in the laboratory of Lieping Chen, MD, PhD. Dr. Chen was the first to discover a protein called PD-L1, and he established the important role of this pathway in cancer immunotherapy.