Shilpa S. Murthy, an Indian American early career investigator at Yale Cancer Center has been awarded a prestigious $1.1 million Career Development Award from the Department of Defense (DoD).
Murthy is an assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery and Medical Oncology Her project, entitled “From Service to Survival: Investigating the Association Between Military Deployment and Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Mortality in Veterans,” aims to understand why survival rates for younger patients with colorectal cancer are worse in the Veteran population.
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. and cases of early onset colorectal cancer (EO-CRC) – cancer diagnosed before age 50 – are on the rise.
Murthy’s team, according to a Yale release, is looking to determine whether military deployment is a risk factor for early death in Veterans with EO-CRC and use storytelling from veterans and machine learning to develop a clinical risk prediction tool to identify Veterans at high risk for EO-CRC. Potential causes may include military-related exposures, combat stressors, and other clinical conditions.
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The award, part of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) 2025 Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program Career Development Award—Scholar Option, supports independent, highly accomplished early-career investigators.
Murthy’s clinical practice consists of general and colorectal surgery at the West Haven Veterans Affairs Hospital and her research is dedicated to improving cancer care delivery for veterans and vulnerable patients.
She completed her undergraduate degree with high honors in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan. She attended medical school at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine.
Murthy completed her general surgery residency training at Indiana University and a colorectal fellowship at the John Goligher Colorectal Unit, NHS Leeds Teaching Hospitals, in England.
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She then went on to complete a Surgical Oncology Global Cancer Disparities Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) where she spent clinical and research time training at MSKCC in New York City as well as in Nigeria, Africa.
Murthy’s research interests lie at the intersection of surgery and public health and how these two fields can improve cancer care delivery for underserved and disenfranchised patients.
Murthy also worked with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland in the Cancer Division where she contributed to the WHO Report on Cancer and research on premature mortality outcomes of various cancers, and the cancer workforce.
She was also a Lancet Commissioner for the Lancet Oncology Journal Commissions in Global Cancer Surgery Part I and Part II.