Associate Professor Gavin Wright

Thoracic Surgeon

Associate Professor Gavin Wright is a thoracic surgeon who completed his fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in General Surgery in 1997, then a second fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery in 2000.

He is currently the Director of Surgical Oncology at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and works at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre as both a thoracic surgeon and as the Research and Education Lead  for Lung Cancer at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the University of Melbourne Department of Surgery.

Although his surgical practice has been dominated by minimally invasive surgical techniques (including robotic surgery) and lung-conserving surgery for lung cancer, he also specialises in complex major surgery for lung cancer, mesothelioma and thymoma and other tumours in the chest.

Whilst most of Professor Wright’s practice relates to cancer diagnosis and management, he also performs surgery for emphysema, pectus chest deformities, excessive hand sweating, and empyema (infections around the lung).

In the field of lung cancer, Professor Wright enjoys a high national and international profile, having contributed to the latest staging system for lung cancer and the Australian Wiki-guidelines for lung cancer. He has published almost 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and 2 book chapters.

Professor Wright has conducted multiple clinical research trials, and strongly believes that a research-based practice is important for his patients to get access to the latest and best treatments. He was awarded a PhD investigating the molecular biology of lung adenocarcinoma, for which he received a postgraduate NHMRC scholarship and University of Melbourne’s Gordon-Taylor scholarship.