Azam Ghafoor
Azam Ghafoor
Clinical Associate Professor
Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Specialty/Research Focus
Adoptive Cellular Therapy; Antibody-Drug Conjugates; Cancer Treatment and Prevention; Clinical Research; Drug Design; Drug Development; Epigenetics; Genomics and proteomics; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; Immunology; Immunology; Immunotherapy; Lung; Medical Oncology; Molecular and Cellular Biology; Nanoparticles; Oncology; Precision Medicine; Preclinical Research; Translational Research; Translational Research; Tumor Microenvironment
Contact Information
Patient Care
Patient Care
This faculty member is affiliated with UBMD, practicing physicians who are also professors in the Jacobs School.
Find this physician on UBMDProfessional Summary:
Dr. Azam Ghafoor is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and serves as Director of Lung Cancer Research and Head of Thoracic Oncology at the University at Buffalo/Kaleida Health. He is a physician-scientist specializing in thoracic malignancies, precision oncology, cancer immunotherapy, and the development of novel therapeutics for solid tumors.
Previously, Dr. Ghafoor served as an Associate Research Physician at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he led and contributed to translational research programs and early-phase clinical trials investigating innovative treatments for thoracic malignancies.
His research focuses on developing next-generation cancer therapeutics, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, T-cell engagers, antibody-drug conjugates, and RNA-based approaches. His work integrates molecular oncology, tumor immunology, and translational science to identify mechanisms of therapeutic resistance and develop strategies to improve outcomes for patients with lung cancer and other solid tumors.
Dr. Ghafoor has received competitive research funding including support from the National Cancer Institute. His research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, and Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
In his current leadership role, Dr. Ghafoor oversees thoracic oncology clinical and translational research, leads the development of an adult solid tumor clinical trial program, and works to expand access to innovative clinical trials. He is committed to advancing precision medicine, fostering multidisciplinary collaborations, mentoring the next generation of physician-scientists, and translating scientific discoveries into meaningful clinical benefits for patients with cancer.
Employment:
- Director of Lung Cancer Program, Hematology and Oncology, UB
Journal Articles:
- Ghafoor A, Zhu L, Weaver Ohler Z, El Meskini R, Ying H, Atkinson D, Day A, Pate N, Bassel L, Wang W, Calvo KR, Pongor L, Parmar K, Pommier Y, Thomas A, Sun Y. (2026) HDAC Inhibition Unlocks Tumor Plasticity and Enhances Immunotherapy Response in Myc-Driven Small Cell Lung Cancer. Molecular cancer therapeutics (Oct), 25(10): 1664-1677.
- Wu X, Hernandez FV, Wang H, Wang R, Shiffka S, Shah N, Carr SR, Hoang CD, Blakely AM, Lebensohn A, Mishra K, Xi S, Zhang MR, Tolunay T, Gara S, Absher A, Francis D, Rowland A, Connolly M, Jacobs S, Orfgen S, Driscoll K, Ghafoor A, Lu X, Malouf GG, Yang H, Carbone M, Hassan R, Jones E, Miettinen M, Schrump DS. (2025) Prospective Analysis of Mesotheliomas in Subjects With BAP1 Cancer Syndrome: Clinical Characteristics and Epigenetic Correlates of Disease. Journal of thoracic oncology : official publication of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (Nov), 20(11): 1699-1715.
- Ghafoor A, Roper N, Kim C, Hoang CD, Kesarwala AH, Camphausen KA, Farouq K, Akoth E, Keen C, Szabo E, Bhageri H, Rajan A, Guha U. (2025) Local Ablative Therapy Followed by Osimertinib Rechallenge in Oligoprogressive, EGFR-Mutated NSCLC: A Phase 2 Study. JTO clinical and research reports (Oct), 6(10): 100886.
- Ghafoor A, Zhu L, Ohler ZW, Meskini RE, Atkinson D, Day A, Bassel L, Wang W, Ying H, Calvo KR, Pongor L, Pommier Y, Thomas A, Sun Y. (2025) HDAC inhibition unlocks tumor plasticity and enhances immunotherapy response in Myc-Driven Small Cell Lung Cancer. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (Aug).
- Kindler HL, Ismaila N, Bazhenova L, Chu Q, Churpek JE, Dagogo-Jack I, Bryan DS, Drazer MW, Forde P, Husain AN, Sauter JL, Rusch V, Bradbury PA, Cho BCJ, de Perrot M, Ghafoor A, Graham DL, Khorshid O, Lebensohn A, White J, Hassan R. (2025) Treatment of Pleural Mesothelioma: ASCO Guideline Update. Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Mar), 43(8): 1006-1038.
- Morhard R, Mauda-Havakuk M, Delgado JF, Kassin MT, Ghafoor A, Pastan I, Hassan R, Karanian JW, Pritchard WF, Wood BJ, Mikhail AS. (2025) Mapping drug distribution using CT imaging following direct tissue injection in ex vivo liver: informing clinical implementation. CVIR oncology (Jan), 1(1): 27.
- Lebensohn A, Ghafoor A, Bloomquist L, Royer MC, Castelo-Soccio L, Karacki K, Hathaway O, Maglo T, Wagner C, Agra MG, Blakely AM, Schrump DS, Hassan R, Cowen EW. (2024) Multiple Onychopapillomas and BAP1 Tumor Predisposition Syndrome. JAMA dermatology (Aug), 160(8): 838-845.
- Hassan R, Butler M, O'Cearbhaill RE, Oh DY, Johnson M, Zikaras K, Smalley M, Ross M, Tanyi JL, Ghafoor A, Shah NN, Saboury B, Cao L, Quintás-Cardama A, Hong D. (2023) Mesothelin-targeting T cell receptor fusion construct cell therapy in refractory solid tumors: phase 1/2 trial interim results. Nature medicine (Aug), 29(8): 2099-2109.
- Olasupo OO, Haddix C, Nakar C, Maahs J, Greist A, Ghafoor A, Donfield SM, Iorio A, Shapiro AD. (2022) Utilization of a surgical database to provide care and assess perioperative treatment and outcomes in patients with bleeding disorders. European journal of haematology (Mar), 108(3): 232-243.
- Hu ZI, Miettinen M, Quezado M, Lebensohn AP, Aldape K, Agra M, Wagner C, Mallory Y, Hassan R, Ghafoor A. (2022) Meningiomas in Patients With Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Harboring Germline BAP1 Mutations. Journal of thoracic oncology : official publication of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (Mar), 17(3): 461-466.
- Ghafoor A, Mian I, Wagner C, Mallory Y, Agra MG, Morrow B, Wei JS, Khan J, Thomas A, Sengupta M, Steinberg SM, Hassan R. (2021) Phase 2 Study of Olaparib in Malignant Mesothelioma and Correlation of Efficacy With Germline or Somatic Mutations in BAP1 Gene. JTO clinical and research reports (Oct), 2(10): 100231.
- Kim C, Xi L, Cultraro CM, Wei F, Jones G, Cheng J, Shafiei A, Pham TH, Roper N, Akoth E, Ghafoor A, Misra V, Monkash N, Strom C, Tu M, Liao W, Chia D, Morris C, Steinberg SM, Bagheri H, Wong DTW, Raffeld M, Guha U. (2021) Longitudinal Circulating Tumor DNA Analysis in Blood and Saliva for Prediction of Response to Osimertinib and Disease Progression in EGFR-Mutant Lung Adenocarcinoma. Cancers (Jul), 13(13).
- Hu ZI, Ghafoor A, Sengupta M, Hassan R. (2021) Malignant mesothelioma: Advances in immune checkpoint inhibitor and mesothelin-targeted therapies. Cancer (Apr), 127(7): 1010-1020.
- Jiang Q, Ghafoor A, Mian I, Rathkey D, Thomas A, Alewine C, Sengupta M, Ahlman MA, Zhang J, Morrow B, Steinberg SM, Pastan I, Hassan R. (2020) Enhanced efficacy of mesothelin-targeted immunotoxin LMB-100 and anti-PD-1 antibody in patients with mesothelioma and mouse tumor models. Science translational medicine (Jul), 12(550).
- Kabbash MS, Edmund J, Ghafoor A, Hassan R, Rosing D, Thomas A. (2020) Intracardiac Involvement by Primary Malignant Mesothelioma: A Report of Two Cases. Journal of thoracic oncology : official publication of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (Feb), 15(2): e25-e27.
- Mian I, Padiernos E, Hassan R, Ghafoor A. (2020) Orbital metastases from malignant mesothelioma. The Lancet. Oncology (Feb), 21(2): e117.
- 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. (2015) Aberrant Levels of miRNAs in Bone Marrow Microenvironment and Peripheral Blood of Myeloma Patients and Disease Progression. The Journal of molecular diagnostics : JMD (Nov), 17(6): 669-78.
- Ghafoor A, Almakki A. (2014) Renal confined sarcoidosis: Natural history and diagnostic challenge. Avicenna journal of medicine (Apr), 4(2): 44-7.