Elias Jabbour, MD

Dr. Jabbour joined the MD Anderson Cancer Center faculty in 2007 and is currently a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Leukemia. He is actively involved in developmental therapeutics research in leukemia. Over the past 5 years he has assisted in developing chemotherapeutic and biologic agents in leukemias and contributed to the development of others. These include: 1) the Hyper CVAD-ofatumumab regimen in ALL; 2) clofarabine in myeloid malignancies; 3) hypomethylating agents in AML and MDS; 4) Tyrosine kinase therapy in CML; and 5) triple therapy in AML. This research has also provided insight into the biology of leukemias. He has extensively addressed the question of resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors and to analyze the outcome of these patients. We have identified different mechanisms of resistance and described the clinical significance of them. This has clinical significance in establishing new milestones and leading to personalized therapy. This has tremendous consequences at the scientific and financial levels. He was also actively associated with frontline studies of nilotinib and dasatinib which resulted in FDA approval of these agents for frontline CML therapy in 2010. In addition we have recently addressed the question of genomic instabilities in patients with low-risk MDS who may need earlier therapeutic intervention. This served as a rationale for the first study in the world randomizing such patients to either 5-azacitidine or decitabine. Identifying patients at risk and applying earlier intervention may significantly improve their prognosis. He is leading our efforts to test triple therapy in AML (nucleoside analogs + anthracyclines + cytarabine). The interim results from this randomized trial show a significant improvement in outcome in patients who receive the nucleoside analog clofarabine. This may change the standard of care for the management of patients with AML. Furthermore, I am currently investigating the benefit of adding humanized monoclonal antibody for the treatment of patients with ALL (ofatumumab and HCVAD) and collaborating in the development of monoclonal antibody studies in adult ALL. Finally, he has authored or co-authored hundreds of peer reviewed medical publications and have served on editorial boards of several scientific journals.

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