Immuno Oncology Speakers

Dr. Chehal is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Gulf Medical University (GMU), Ajman, UAE Dr. Chehal is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Khalifa University (KU), Abu Dhabi, UAE Dr. Chehal graduated from the college of Medicine at Baghdad University/Iraq (MBChB) in 1996. He did his Internal Medicine residency at Makassed General Hospital (Affiliated with American University of Beirut), Lebanon, between 1997 and 2000. He did his Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the American University of Beirut (AUBMC), Lebanon, between 2000 and 2003 (Lebanese Board). He obtained Fellowship of the American College of Physician (FACP) in 2013. He obtained the European Certification of Medical Oncology (ECMO) in 2009 and Re-certification in 2014 and 2021. Dr. Chehal is a member of many national and international societies including ASCO, ESMO, EHA,….. He had an important role in Tumor registry in Lebanon in 2002. Dr. Chehal acted as chairperson, moderator, advisor, and member of scientific committee in many local and international congresses. Dr. Chehal has 27 published articles in peer reviewed international journals; he is the first author on 9 of them, in addition to 31 abstracts. He joined Mafraq hospital From May 2006 until December 2019. He served as head of Hematology Oncology division at Mafraq Hospital from December 2018 till December 2019 His main interests are Lung cancer, Breast Cancer, GI malignancies and Lymphoma.

Dr. Bhawna Sirohi started her oncology career at Tata Memorial centre (TMC), Mumbai in 1994 and completed training at Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, UK. She serves in Max Super specialty Hospital and is currently an honorary consultant with QMUL, London. At TMC in 2012-2014, she set up GI medical oncology &medical oncology information system (MOIS) for e-prescribing chemotherapy. She has been involved in initial setting up of cancer centres in Sangrur and Mohali, Punjab for TMC. She has piloted use of virtual consults using PROM & PREM in London.

Dr. Dalia Mahmoud Abdel-hamid El-shourbagy’s specialty is Oncology and currently works as a Physician.

Dr. Deborah Mukherji is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine (Oncology) and joined the faculty of the AUBMC in June 2012. Dr Mukherji completed her advanced specialty training in Medical Oncology at Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, London UK and was awarded a Post-Graduate Diploma in Oncology from the Institute of Cancer Research, University of London in 2011.

Dr.Emad Anwar Dawoud, MD, PhD is a Consultant Clinical Oncology at Tawam Hospital (Affiliated with Johns Hopkins) Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Falah Al-Khatib is a Specialist Radiation Oncologist with more than 35 years of experience. He graduated from Ain Shams University and obtained his DMRT from the Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom, along with a Fellowship of the Faculty of Radiologists from the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland. Additionally, he is able to treat cancer through a wide range of radiation therapy techniques as well as chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Through his expertise and vast experience, Dr. Al-Khatib has highly contributed to the development of medical oncology, specifically radiotherapy, in the UAE.

Asst Prof Dr. Faraz Khan is a Consultant Hematologist and Medical Oncologist with over 15 years experience in treating cancer and various blood diseases. He completed his Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical oncology training from the University of Connecticut, CT, USA and is triple board certified in Internal medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology. He worked as a consultant Hematologist/Medical Oncologist at PEI Cancer Treatment Center, PE, Canada and directed the provincial hemophilia and bleeding disorder clinic.

Dr Fathi Azribi is a Consultant Medical Oncologist and Chief of Medical Oncology Division at Tawam Hospital. He graduated from Tripoli University, Libya, then completed specialty training in Oncology in the UK and obtained a Certificate of Completion of Training in Medical Oncology in October 2009. His main interest is in thoracic, breast, gynaecological and gastrointestinal malignancies; with expertise in treatment with chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormonal and targeted therapy. He published several papers and abstracts in peer reviewed journals. He is also the Program Director of the medical oncology fellowship program at Tawam Hospital.

Giuseppe Curigliano, MD PhD, is Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Milano and the Head of the Division of Early Drug Development at the European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Italy. He is a clinician and researcher specialising in early drug development for patients with solid tumours with a special commitment to breast cancer. He has been a member of the Italian National Health Council since 2018 and, in 2019, he served as Chair of the Scientific Committee of The Lega Nazionale Lotta ai Tumori.

Dr Hassan Ghazal is an American board-certified Consultant Medical Oncologist and a Consultant Clinical hematologist offering more than 3 decades of clinical experience. Dr Hassan Ghazal, after doing his basic medical education in American University of Beirut, moved to US for his residency program in Internal Medicine at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, MD. In 1992, completing the residency program, Dr Hassan Ghazal joined in George Washington university Medical Center for his fellowship in Medical Oncology and completed the same in 1995. He continued in George Washington University Medical Center for another 2 years and obtained his senior fellowship in bone marrow transplantation in the year 1997. He got his US board certification in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and in Hematology in the year 1992, 1995,1996 respectively. Except his association with CMC for the preceding 3 years, all his clinical practices were in US in various capacities including Director, Kentucky Cancer Clinic and Staff Oncologist/ Hematologist at Hazard Appalachian Regional Medical Center. Dr Hassan Ghazal is a member of various clinical societies such as American College of Physicians, American Society of Haematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, European Society of Medical Oncology etc. Dr Hassan Ghazal has got many publications and abstracts in his credit, in peer reviewed journals, and there are many international recognitions and accolades in his name. He has been involved in numerous clinical trials, nearly 100, in the US, serving as Principal Investigator, for over 25 years, and enrolled hundreds of patients in these trials.

Dr.Javier Cortes is a head of breast cancer and gynecological cancers at Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal in Madrid, Spain, as well as Clinical Investigator in the breast cancer research program at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, Spain.He is one of the European leaders in the field of HER2+ breast cancer, and has led fundamental trials that resulted in the approval of pertuzumab, eribulin and everolimus for metastatic breast cancer. He continues to actively participate in national and international clinical investigations to develop molecularly targeted therapies, such as CDK 4/6 inhibitors, and immunotherapies.Dr. Cortés is on the Scientific Committee of ESMO and is an active member of ASCO and the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology.

Professor Weber is the deputy director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center (PCC), and works with a multidisciplinary team of medical and surgical oncologists, dermatologists, and pathologists to treat patients with melanomas ranging from the most common to the most complex. He serves as co-director of PCC’s Melanoma Research Program, and is head of Experimental Therapeutics at PCC, overseeing work in experimental therapeutics. Professor Weber’s clinical and research interests primarily lie in the field of immunotherapy for cancer. He works at the forefront of new ideas in immunotherapy for treating patients with melanoma and managing the side effects of these novel therapies. He has been instrumental in the development of ipilimumab for melanoma, publishing some of the earliest papers showing its efficacy, and has been an early advocate for the use of checkpoint inhibition as adjuvant treatment, culminating in the publication of the New England Journal of Medicine work showing benefit for the PD-1 antibody nivolumab compared to ipilimumab for resected high risk melanoma. He has also been involved in a large variety of clinical trials, including trials for melanoma vaccines, protocols involving adoptive cell therapy, and novel immunotherapy trials for patients with melanoma. Professor Weber is the principal investigator of a number of ongoing studies funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), including trials in clinical drug development and managing the autoimmune side effects of immunotherapy for melanoma. He has been the chair of the CONC study section of NCI and also serves as the co-principal investigator of NYU’s Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for skin cancer and melanoma research from the National Cancer Institute. His research has been funded by RO1 grants from the NCI for over 25 years. Professor Weber has published more than 230 articles in the top peer-reviewed journals in his field. He currently sits on the scientific advisory boards of seven cancer-related biotechnology companies and numerous cancer institutions and foundations.

Dr.Shiu qualified as a doctor at Guys and St Thomas’ Medical School. He trained in medical oncology in London including St George’s Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital and University College London Hospital and completed his PhD in integrative genomic profiling of cancer, working with Professor Alan Ashworth at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital. He also attained a research fellowship at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, maintaining a strong link with them in order to accelerate the development of novel cancer clinical trial designs. Dr. Shiu is a consultant in the Gastrointestinal Oncology Unit at UCLH. He is also the Clinical Lead for the Cancer of Unknown Primary Service, and the Acute Oncology Service at UCLH. He is actively involved in gastrointestinal oncology clinical trial research and also has a specialist interest in treating patients with Cancer of Unknown Primary, their entry into clinical trials, and management of oligometastatic disease. Dr.Shiu is the Principal Investigator of the UCL/UCLH Gastrointestinal Cancer Translational Research Biobank. He is the Chief Investigator and Principal Investigator for a number of national and international trials. He also undertakes early phase clinical trials in the private sector at The Sarah Cannon Research Institute, which is associated with the LOC in Harley Street.

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Chief Medical Director Dr. Mohsen Mokhtar is a professor of clinical oncology in Al-Kasr Al-Aini Medical School. Dr. Mohsen assisted in developing the syllabus and course structure at Al-Kasr Al-Aini, as well as, supervised several research programs and theses. Furthermore, Dr. Mokhtar has published more than 50 articles in several regional magazines in topics including: breast, lung, pediatric, colorectal, ovarian malignancies NHL and hematologic malignancies. Professionally, Dr. Mokhtar has more than 20 years of experience in hospital management. He is currently the chief medical director in Elaj group covering the clinical and medical audit of group facilities

Nouri Bennini has served as Consultant Oncologist at the Tawam Hospital in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, since 1999. He received his general medicine diploma in 1988 from the University of Constantine in Algeria and undertook residency in medical oncology at the University of Bordeaux, France. At the University of Montpellier, France, Dr Bennini specialised in breast diseases. He has published several scientific papers and contributed to a number of oncology conferences.

Dr Raghav Sundar is a clinician-scientist specialising in gastrointestinal oncology. He is a consultant medical oncologist at the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, treating patients with gastrointestinal malignancies including colorectal, gastric and hepatobiliary malignancies. He also specialises in experimental therapeutics and early phase clinical trials, and is a part of the Phase 1 clinical trials team. He underwent fellowship training at the Drug Development Unit, Royal Marsden Hospital, UK. His research interest is in genomics of gastric cancer. He studies the interaction between the tumor epigenome and the immune microenvironment. His work has identified predictive biomarkers of systemic therapy in gastric cancer as well as potential therapeutic targets. His studies incorporate contemporary technology such as spatial transcriptomics and machine-learning. Another area of research interest is in chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy. As a translational clinician-scientist his works arches across several domains, collaborating with engineers, bioinformaticians, laboratory scientists, pharmaceutical and industry partners. He has published over 50 manuscripts, in high impact journals such as Cancer Discovery and Gut and secured over $4 million in grant funding to date.

Dr. Ramanujam Singarachari ( Dr Ram) came to SKMC in 2009 from Auckland City Hospital, New Zealand after 3 years of higher training in Medical Oncology. He has completed his Medical Oncology Super-Specialty Degree (DM) in 2001 from Cancer Institute, Chennai, India and subsequently worked as faculty at regional cancer centers in India, before joining as senior staff specialist at Dubai Hospital, UAE. He is certified and recertified (2019) from European Society of Medical Oncology. He is also certified in Medical Oncology by the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom and the Association of Cancer Physicians. His areas of interest are GI cancers, Breast cancers, CNS cancers and Palliative Care.

He is the founding Medical Director of Sarah Cannon Research Institute UK, and is currently serving as the Executive Medical Director for SCRI UK and Clinical Lead for the Hospital Corporation of America International Cancer Service Line. Dr. Arkenau has vast experience in Early Oncology Clinical Drug Development with a special interest in gastrointestinal cancer and melanoma.