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Ghassan Abou-Alfa, MD, JD, MBA, PhD (he/him/his)

Attending
MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER
New York, New York, United States

Ghassan Abou-Alfa is an Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
(MSK), Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical School at Cornell University, and Adjunct
Professor at Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.
Professor Abou-Alfa specializes in in the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies and in
particular, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma
(IHC), gallbladder cancer (GB), and fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC). Professor Abou-Alfa is the
immediate previous Chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Hepatobiliary Task Force and
currently serves at the NCI AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC) Vice-Chair for Solid Tumor
Working Group, while serving on its Steering Committee. Professor Abou-Alfa served a member
of the International Affairs Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
and as member of its Steering Committee. Professor Abou-Alfa is also the immediate previous
President for the International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology (ISGIO). Professor Abou-
Alfa serves on the council of the governing board of the Asia Pacific Primary Liver Cancer
Expert Association Professor Abou-Alfa majored in biology, earned his medical degree, and now
serves as consultant to the Board of Trustees of his alma mater the American University in Beirut
(AUB). Professor Abou-Alfa completed his postdoctoral training in internal medicine, medical
oncology, and hematology at Yale University, received his MBA from Columbia University, and
his JD from Fordham University.
Professor Abou-Alfa’s research focuses on incorporating small biological molecules and
checkpoint inhibitors into standard cancer therapies. In recent years, his group at MSK led the
first efforts evaluating sorafenib in HCC, that was ultimately approved by the FDA for that
indication in 2007. Professor Abou-Alfa also led his group at MSK on the efforts evaluating
cabozantinib which was approved by the FDA for HCC indication in 2019. Professor Abou-Alfa
has also championed key work in determining novel targeted therapies for IHC and GB,
targeting IDH1, FGFR-2, and Her-2. He lately led the efforts of pemigatinib, which was
approved by the FDA in 2020, for patients with IHC and FGFR-2 alterations, and ivosidenib
which was approved by the FDA in 2021, for patients with IHC and IDH1mutaiton. He also
collaboratively and part of a team effort helped with the FDA approval of infigratinib and
pemigatinib, which was approved by the FDA in 2021, for patients with IHC and FGFR-2
alterations. With his heavy involvement the use of checkpoint inhibitors in the malignancies of
interest, Professor Abou-Alfa led the effort of positive outcome dual immunotherapy of
durvalumab plus tremelimumab the HIMALAYA study worldwide. This adds to a global effort
to be understand the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) that would help identify the most
applicable therapeutics or combination of. He also continues to work on determining the right
CAR-T antigens for HCC and FLC, and IHC. Professor Abou-Alfa and team have also worked
and were first to report on germline alterations associated with biliary tract cancers.
Professor Abou-Alfa envisions the universal quest for health, embodied by physicians upholding
humanistic ideals, supersedes geopolitics among the world’s people. In recognition of his
medical, humanitarian, and social efforts, Professor Abou-Alfa is bestowed the Order of Merit,
Captain, National Order of the Cedar by the Presidency of the Government of the Lebanese
Republic. Recognizing germline alterations as an endless opportunity to explore cancer related
environmental and other genetic risk factors of varied populations and regions, Professor Abou-
Alfa co-led a global effort to study humanity cancer germline and environmental convergence
and divergence cancer predispositions worldwide. Professor Abou-Alfa strongly advocates for
greater awareness of cancer’s global impact; and continues to lead several international
educational and research efforts with different institutions worldwide. Professor Abou-Alfa
spearheaded many projects worldwide including the MENA region, Africa, Southeast Asia,
Eurasia, and the Americas. These efforts include several monthly video-link worldwide
educational conferences led by MSK, which is now global and includes institutions from
throughout the global, including add to Lebanon, India, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates,
Malawi, and Brazil, with several of its proceedings are already published in peer–reviewed
journals. Professor Abou-Alfa also leads regular class-training conferences offered on
competitive basis worldwide in collaboration between MSK and AUB to help educate and teach
about the state of the art of cancer care and learn about the germline, somatic, and environmental
risk factors and treatment practices in the respective country and region. This almost two decades
old collaboration, one of the most sustained between an US institution and one in the MENA
region, has led to the development of the first joint tissue bank with a shared database in the
region. The joint programs also offer supported post-graduate training opportunities for excelling
medical graduates. Collectively, these collaborative efforts Professor Abou-Alfa develop the
business model that helps enhance academic interaction and set a platform to build on
partnerships among institutions. Along the same path, Professor Abou-Alfa continues to lead the
effort along with colleagues from 23 countries in Africa to draft the Africa Guidelines for
screening and treating HCC, written by African colleagues for Africa.
Professor also takes on an advocacy role while research funding continue to lag
despite the worldwide impact of this disease. Professor Abou-Alfa Abou-Alfa serves and served on several
advisory boards including the American Liver Foundation, Fibrolamellar Carcinoma Foundation,
Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, and Blue Faery Foundation, and is a regular volunteering
contributor to the Binay Foundation in Nepal. He co-authored with Professor Ronald DeMatteo
100 Questions and Answers About Liver Cancer, now coming to its fourth edition, and with his
dear wife and colleague Professor Eileen O’Reilly, also a medical oncologist at MSK, 100
Questions and Answers About Biliary Cancer now coming to its third edition.

Presentation(s):