Dr. Sun's research passion is focused on improving the quality of life and quality of care for patients and family caregivers in cancer surgery and survivorship through interdisciplinary, collaborative research. She has more than 16 years of clinical experience as an oncology nurse and nurse practitioner. While training as a nurse practitioner, Dr. Sun became interested in research, and subsequently completed her PhD in 2010. Her research program is focused on thoracic, gastrointestinal, and hepatobiliary malignancies.

Dr. Sun conducts research to better understand the unmet needs of patients and families in cancer surgery. Her work integrates patient- and family-centered outcomes in cancer surgery, and seeks to understand factors that contribute to poor postoperative outcomes and functional recovery in surgical populations. Dr. Sun is also interested in designing and testing interventions to enhance self-management, quality of life, and postoperative outcomes in surgery patients and family caregivers. Dr. Sun's funded study is a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of a Multimedia Self-Management (MSM) Intervention to prepare 160 caregiver-patient dyads for lung cancer surgery. This research is critical because lung cancer patients are discharged from the hospital soon after surgery, despite an aging population that suffers from greater co-morbidities and decreased quality of life. As a result, the bulk of the caregiving burden after surgery has fallen on family caregivers. The intervention aims to improve family caregiver burden, caregiving preparedness, psychological distress, and quality of life; and patient psychological distress, quality of life, and healthcare resource use (discharge disposition, need for home health nursing, hospital readmissions).