Thoracic Surgery Specialist Joins Department of Surgery

Virginia Litle, M.D.

Virginia Litle, M.D., has been appointed associate professor in the Division of Thoracic Surgery. Her clinical expertise includes pushing the frontiers of minimally invasive thoracic surgery, such as laparoscopic esophagectomy. Additionally, she is well-respected for her active research work in the areas of lung and esophageal cancer, which includes funding from the National Cancer Institute to investigate micro RNA expression in esophageal adenocarcinoma.

She is one of six new surgical faculty joining the Department of Surgery. The recruits cut across and further strengthen the main priorities of the Medical Center’s Strategic Plan, according to Jeffrey H. Peters, M.D., Seymour I. Schwartz Professor and chair of the Department of Surgery.

Litle graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s degree in Biology and the Brown Dartmouth Program in Medicine. She completed her surgical training at the prestigious UCSF Department of Surgery, where she worked in the Division of Molecular Cytometry and the Gastrointestinal Research Laboratory. She accepted a fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center after completing her second research fellowship, followed by a fellowship in thoracic and minimally invasive surgery. She then matriculated into cardiothoracic surgical residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Click here to view complete CV.

Following her cardiothoracic residency, Litle was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine where she has built an active clinical practice, has obtained federal grant funding and maintains an active laboratory.