Dr. Christopher R. Johnson is board certified in general surgery and has completed fellowship training in thoracic surgery. In 2025, he joined Virginia Cancer Specialists with over a decade of clinical and research experience. He has a special interest in robotic thoracic surgery, lung cancer care, and minimally invasive surgical techniques.
Dr. Johnson earned his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency training at Boston Medical Center and Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. He then pursued a postdoctoral research fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he contributed to cutting-edge research in thoracic oncology, including novel therapies for esophageal cancer and simulation-based surgical training. He completed his thoracic surgery fellowship at McGaw Medical Center at Northwestern University.
Dr. Johnson has presented at numerous national conferences and published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on topics ranging from robotic cardiac sympathetic denervation to innovative wound healing techniques. He has been recognized for his academic contributions, including first-place honors at the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Surgeons’ Cancer Resident Competition.
He is actively involved in professional development programs such as the Medtronic Optimizing Lung Cancer Care Fellowship and the AATS/Intuitive Thoracic Robotics initiative. Dr. Johnson is a member of several professional societies, including The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society.
Dr. Johnson is passionate about advancing thoracic surgical care through collaboration, innovation, and education. He believes that optimal patient outcomes are achieved through a multidisciplinary approach involving medical oncology, radiation oncology, and thoracic surgery.
