Dr. Santos is an oncologist at the St. Louis VA and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, with a clinical and research focus on thoracic malignancies. His work is centered on improving outcomes for patients with lung cancer through clinical trials, translational research, and outcomes research within the VA and Washington University systems.
Dr. Santos’s research program focuses on thoracic malignancies and spans investigator-initiated clinical trials, translational immuno-oncology, and real-world outcomes research. He is currently leads an investigator-initiated phase I/II study evaluating nogapendekin alfa inbakicept (N-803) in combination with nivolumab and ipilimumab for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, supported by institutional grant funding, and serves as local principal investigator for additional thoracic oncology clinical trials. He is also developing other investigator-initiated studies across the St. Louis VA and Washington University systems focused on expanding access to novel therapies and clinical research for veterans with thoracic malignancies. In parallel, Santos conducts population-based and clinico-genomic research, including studies of small cell lung cancer epidemiology and outcomes, analyses of clinical-pathologic staging and treatment patterns in non-small cell lung cancer using national datasets such as the NCDB, and tumor immune microenvironment research using Tempus Lens. Prior to his work in oncology, his research training was in neurochemistry, where he studied oxidative stress and neuroprotection in experimental models of neurologic injury.