Dr. Christine L. Lau

About Christine L. Lau

Accolades

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  Top Doctor

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  Pleural and Lung Cancer

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  Excellence in Research

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  Team Leader

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  Board Certified in Thoracic Surgery

Lau, a professor of surgery at UVA, is also part of a program that takes a multidisciplinary approach to treating mesothelioma.

Each cancer case goes before a tumor board — comprised of medical oncologists, surgical oncologists and radiation oncologists — to coordinate personalized care that is necessary for the best possible outcome for patients.

Lau the principal investigator in a landmark clinical trial at UVA that is studying the drug regadenoson and its potential to help prevent chronic rejection of lung transplants. She is collaborating with the National Institutes of Health on the project.

The trial began in 2018 after decades of research at UVA, which is hoping to increase the survival rate of lung transplant patients.

Began Career at University of Michigan

Lau began her career as an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Michigan Medical Center, where she was voted one of the Detroit area’s top thoracic surgeons by Hour Detroit Magazine.

At UVA, she is part of the Division of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, specializing in all aspects of general thoracic surgery.

As part of the lung cancer and mesothelioma program, she is joined by thoracic surgeons Dr. Linda Martin, Dr. Dustin Walters and Dr. Sasha Krupnick.

“Together, we handle the full spectrum of surgical treatments here,” she said, including the aggressive pleurectomy and decortication and extrapleural pneumonectomy for mesothelioma.

First in Her Medical School Class

Lau graduated from Dartmouth Medical Center, where she graduated first in her class. She did her internship and residency in general surgery at Duke University Medical Center.

She did fellowships in lung transplantation and cardiothoracic surgery at Washington University in St. Louis.

Lau is skilled in minimally invasive surgery and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. She has been working with the National Institutes of Health on lung transplant studies since 2008.

She has authored several chapters in medical textbooks on mediastinal diseases, laparoscopic surgery, lung transplantation, esophageal cancer and lung cancer.

Lau was named to Newsweek’s Top Cancer Doctors 2015 and the Best Doctors in America list in 2012.