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Azam Ghafoor, M.D.

Azam Ghafoor, M.D.

  • Center for Cancer Research
  • National Cancer Institute
Thoracic and GI Malignancies Branch

RESEARCH SUMMARY

Dr. Ghafoor's primary interests are studying early-onset cancers in healthy and cancer patients with predisposition syndrome such as BRACA1-Associated Protein-1 (BAP1). He is an expert in studying families and individual patients through radiographic imaging to determine the frequency and incidence of cancers as well as potential for early intervention.

Dr. Ghafoor is also a medical oncologist  in thoracic malignancies, where he treated patient with  mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer. His clinical research is focused on the use of anti-mesothelin therapies, including immunotoxins and CAR T tharpies against NSCLC and mesothelioma, and targeted therapies in comibination with local therapies for EGFR mutated NSCLC. His focus also includes optimizing immunotherapies and precision medicine for lung cancer patients using combination-based approaches to overcome and delay resistance.

Areas of Expertise

Early-onset Cancers
BAP1
CAR T-cell
Immunotherapy
Thoracic Cancers

Information for Patients

Learn more about our clinical trials and the highly specialized care teams that lead them.

Publications

Selected Key Publications

Phase 2 Study of Olaparib in Malignant Mesothelioma and Correlation of Efficacy With Germline or Somatic Mutations in BAP1 Gene


Azam Ghafoor, Idrees Mian, Cathy Wagner, Yvonne Mallory, Maria Garcia Agra, Betsy Morrow, Jun S. Wei, Javed Khan, Anish Thomas, Manjistha Sengupta, Seth M. Steinberg, Raffit Hassan
JTO Clinical and Research Reports. Volume 2, Issue 10: 2021.
Full-Text Article

Orbital metastases from malignant mesothelioma

Idrees Mian, Emerson Padiernos, Raffit Hassan, Azam Ghafoor.
Lancet Oncology. 21(2): 117, 2020. [ Journal Article ]

Targeting mesothelin in ovarian cancer

Azam Ghafoor, Anish Thomas, and Raffit Hassan
Oncotarget. 9(90): 36050–36051, 2018. [ Journal Article ]

Enhanced efficacy of mesothelin-targeted immunotoxin LMB-100 and anti–PD-1 antibody in patients with mesothelioma and mouse tumor models

Qun Jiang*, Azam Ghafoor* (*equal contribution) , Idrees Mian, Daniel Rathkey, Anish Thomas, Christine Alewine, Manjistha Sengupta, Mark A. Ahlman, Jingli Zhang, Betsy Morrow, Seth M. Steinberg, Ira Pastan, Raffit Hassan
Science Translational Medicine. 12/550: 2020. [ Journal Article ]

Aberrant Levels of miRNAs in Bone Marrow Microenvironment and Peripheral Blood of Myeloma Patients and Disease Progression

Wang W, Corrigan-Cummins M, Barber EA, Saleh LM, Zingone A, Ghafoor A, Costello R, Zhang Y, Kurlander RJ, Korde N, Roccaro AM, Ghobrial IM, Landgren O, Calvo KR.
Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. 17(6): 669-78, 2015. [ Journal Article ]