Eric J. Burks, MD

Associate Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Eric Burks, MD, studies screening-detected non-small cell lung cancer. Dr. Burks’ studies established the diagnostic criteria for an entity now known as pulmonary adenocarcinoma of low malignant potential (LMP) which has been internationally validated and shown to account for overdiagnosis in the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). His work has further established angioinvasive lung adenocarcinoma as the most aggressive form of early-stage NSCLC. Patients with small (<2 cm) angioinvasive tumors benefit from surgical resection of the entire involved lung lobe whereas the remaining patients are adequately treated with parenchymal sparing approaches such as wedge resection. Dr. Burks is a provisional patent holder (BU-2023-026) for biomarkers associated with angioinvasive lung adenocarcinoma, a co-investigator on a U01, The Lung Pre-Cancer Atlas project, a site PI on two R01s and a co-PI on an American Society of Hematology grant. In addition, he directs hematopathology, the hematology laboratory, the immunohistochemistry and special procedures laboratory, including amyloid pathology, and the hemoglobin diagnostic reference laboratory at Boston Medical Center.

Publications

  • Published 5/6/2026

    Anderson KE, Tran LM, Krysan K, Kefella Y, Yu L, Fishbein GA, Rodriguez EF, Shabihkhani M, Stefanko DP, Green E, Liu G, Liu H, Zhang S, Kane E, Mehrad M, Spira AE, Dubinett SM, Burks EJ, Mazzilli SA, Lenburg ME, Beane JE. Archetype analysis of lung adenocarcinoma premalignancy links heterogeneity in premalignant lesions to diverging features of invasive disease. Mol Cancer Res. 2026 May 06. PMID: 42089783.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/8/2026

    Xu L, Kefella Y, Zhang Y, Conrad RD, Anderson KE, Krysan K, Liu G, Kane E, Pennycuick A, Merrick DT, Janes SM, Reid ME, Burks EJ, Billatos E, Mazzilli SA, Kolachalama VB, Beane JE. Attention-based deep learning for analysis of pathology images and gene expression data in lung squamous premalignant lesions. Genome Med. 2026 Apr 08. PMID: 41952176.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/2/2026

    Ning B, Chiu DJ, Pfefferkorn RM, Cullinane E, Kefella Y, Kane E, Reyes-Ortiz V, Liu G, Zhang X, Liu H, Sultan L, Green E, Constant M, Spira AE, Campbell JD, Reid ME, Varelas X, Burks EJ, Lenburg ME, Mazzilli SA, Beane JE. Upregulation of an Epithelial miRNA Is Associated with Immune Evasion in Progressive Bronchial Premalignant Lesions. Cancer Immunol Res. 2026 Apr 02; 14(4):689-707. PMID: 41670462.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/29/2026

    George T, Staron A, Burks EJ, Szalat RE, Sanchorawala V. Cyclin D1 immunostaining as a diagnostic surrogate for the t(11;14) translocation in AL amyloidosis. Br J Haematol. 2026 Mar 29. PMID: 41905782.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/24/2026

    Steiner D, Sultan L, Sullivan T, Liu H, Xiao X, LeClerc A, Melvin S, Alekseyev YO, Liu G, Mazzilli SA, Zhang J, Suzuki K, Rieger-Christ K, Burks EJ, Beane J, Lenburg ME. Vascular invasion-associated gene expression is detectable in pre-surgical biopsies of stage I lung adenocarcinoma. Nat Commun. 2026 Mar 24; 17(1). PMID: 41876493.

    Read at: PubMed

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Other Positions

  • Member, BU-BMC Cancer Center
    Boston University

Websites

Education

  • University of New Mexico School of Medicine, MD
  • New Mexico State University, BS

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