Puneeth Iyengar, PhD

Briefly, Puneeth Iyengar joined the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX USA in the summer of 2010 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, with a professional emphasis on treating lung cancer patients. He is co-leader of the Thoracic Oncology Program in the Harold Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, leader of the Lung Radiation Oncology Team, Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Radiation Oncology, and institutional representative to NRG from UT Southwestern. His clinical focus is on studying local therapy for oligometastatic NSCLC. He has published significantly in this area, in top tier journals including JCO, JAMA Oncology, Lancet Oncology, among others. He is overall PI of the international trial NRG LU 002, a randomized phase III study assessing local therapy in the setting of immunotherapy and oligometastatic NSCLC. As a physician scientist, Dr. Iyengar runs an independent laboratory with a focus on studying the complex crosstalk between inflammatory states, cachexia, and lung cancer progression and therapeutic resistance. His research program has been funded by organizations including the National Lung Cancer Partnership, Lung Cancer Research Foundation, and Radiological Society of North America. He has also received a President’s Council Distinguished Researcher Award from UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas as well as a Sidney Kimmel Research Foundation Award over the last few years. Finally, he received an American Cancer Society Independent Investigator Research Scholar Award. He received his undergraduate degree from MIT, MD and PhD degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, and radiation oncology residency training from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In addition, he is Board Certified in Radiation Oncology and have been granted medical licensure to practice in Texas.