Education

DATE	FIELD OF STUDY	INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
Sep.1999 –Jul.2005	Doctor of Medicine Degree	Damascus University, School of Medicine. Damascus, Syria
Sep.2005-Jun.2007	Diagnostic Radiology	Damascus University, School of Medicine. Damascus, Syria
Jul.2008-Jun.2011	Internal Medicine Residency	University of Rochester/ Unity Hospital. Rochester, NY
Jul.2011- Sep 2012	Michigan State University. Lansing, MI	Hematology and Medical Oncology Fellowship
Sep.2012- Jun.2014	Georgia Regents University, Augusta, GA	Hematology and Medical Oncology Fellowship

 

Biography

I am a medical oncologist and hematologist, and I specialize in genitourinary malignancy and melanoma, I am currently an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Iowa and Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, where I see patients with these types of malignancies.
Being at a major academic comprehensive cancer center, I prefer to treat my patients on clinical trials whenever available, and I have gained significant interest in phase I trials design during my training at Georgia Regents University, where I have participated in many phase I investigator initiated clinical trials, and some of them are currently multi- center ones.

I am working on a new investigator initiated phase I study combining high dose selenium with axitinib in metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma, in collaboration with our scientist at the University of Iowa who have worked on selenium and others from Roswell Park Cancer Institute who have exciting preclinical data for the afore mentioned combination. Another ongoing Phase I clinical trial in melanoma is combining Indoximod as IDO inhibitor with Ipilimumab in metastatic melanoma, I was involved in designing the trial and writing up the protocol, and it is now multi-center study.

Research Interest

• Blood and Marrow Transplantation
• Hematology
• Oncology

 

Professional Activities:

Positions and Employment

2014-current

Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology-Oncology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Professional Membership

2005- Current	Syrian Syndicate of Medicine
2007- Current	Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)
2008- Current	American College of Physician (ACP)
2011- Current	American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
2011-Current	American Society of Hematology (ASH)

 

Publications

1. Zakharia Y, Zakharia K, Rixe O. Axitinib: from preclinical development to future clinical perspectives in renal cell carcinoma. Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery. June 2015
2. Zakharia Y, Rahma O, Khleif SN. Ovarian Cancer from Immune Prospective. Journal of Radiology Research. July 2014
3. Zakharia, Y. Vasireddi, S. Fatakhov, E. Koch, K. Hrinczenko, B. Tumor Lysis Syndrome in a Retroperitoneal Sarcoma: A Case Report and Literature Review. Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports. July 2014 vol. 2 no. 2
4. Mansour J, Mangaonkar A, Zakharia Y, Chand A, Jillella A, Kota V. Utility Of D-Dimer As a Marker For Differentiation Syndrome and Infections In Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL). Blood Journal, November 2013, Blood 122 (21).
5. Peppone LJ, Huston AJ, Reid ME, Rosier RN, Zakharia Y, Trump DL, Mustian KM, Janelsins MC, Purnell JQ, Morrow G. The effect of various vitamin D supplementation regimens in breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2011 May;127(1):171-7. Epub 2011 Mar 8.
6. Zhang, S., Zakharia, Y., Tan, W., Wilding, G., Edge, S., Liu, W., Tan, D., Khoury, T... (2011) Breast hormonal receptors test should be repeated on excisional biopsies after negative core biopsy. Platform at the United States and Canadian academy of pathology; Washington, DC. Breast Journal, 17, 180–186.
7. Khoury, T., Zakharia, Y., Hwang, H., Liu, W., Edge, S., Tan, D., Morrison, C... (2010). HER2 testing: How to get high concordance rate between immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Poster at: United States and Canadian academy of pathology; Washington, DC. Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol 2011; 19 (5) : 424-30
8. Ayyappan S, Gonzalez C, Yarlagadda R, Zakharia Y, Woodlock T. Lung Cancer in the Very Elderly: Incidence, Presentation, and Diagnostic Decision-making. A Retrospective Analysis at a Teaching Community Hospital. Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives 1-6; 10/2011.

Abstracts and Posters:

1. Colman H, Mott F, Spira A, Johnson T, Zakharia Y, Vanhanian N, Link C, Kennedy E, Sadek R, Munn D, Rixe O. A phase 1b/2 study of the combination of the IDO pathway inhibitor indoximod and temozolomide for adult patients with temozolomide-refractory primary malignant brain tumors: Safety analysis and preliminary efficacy of the phase 1b component. Poster presentation ASCO Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL 2015.
2. Phadke S, Engleman E, Ferre R, Abushahin L, Mott S, Zakharia Y, Milhem M. A phase I study evaluating safety and efficacy of vemurafenib in combination with decitabine in metastatic melanoma. Poster presentation ASCO Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL 2015.
3. Zakharia Y, Johnson T, Colman H, Vahanian N, Link C, Kennedy E, Sadek R, Kong F, Vender J, Munn D, Rixe O. Updates on A Phase I-II Study of the Combination of Indoximod and Temozolomide for Adult Patients with Temozolomide-Refractory Primary Malignant Brain Tumors. Poster presentation at Society of Neuro-Oncology International Annual Meeting (SNO), Miami, FL 2014.
4. Zakharia Y, Johnson T, Colman H, Vahanian N, Link C, Kennedy E, Sadek R, Kong F, Vender J, Munn D, Rixe O. A Phase I-II Study of the Combination of Indoximod and Temozolomide for Adult Patients with Temozolomide-Refractory Primary Malignant Brain Tumors. Poster presentation ASCO Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL 2014.
5. Zakharia Y, Kota V, Mansour J, Prabhakar R, Lan L, Awan F, Jillella A. Serum alkaline phosphatase level on day 4 of G-CSF administration could be a simple yet practical surrogate marker for CD34 mobilization and collection. Poster presentation ASH Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA 2013.
6. Mansour J, Fatakhov E, Zakharia Y, Koch C, Merchen L. Recurrent Metastatic Parotid Carcinosarcoma in Asymptomatic Patient. Poster presentation at ACP Georgia Chapter. 2013.
7. Raval P, Kota V, Zakharia Y, Awan F, Pantin J, Jillella A. Congestive heart failure (CHF) in acute myeloid leukemia patients during induction. Poster presentation ASCO Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL 2013.
8. Zakharia, Y. Shelke, A. Asbury, R. Case of Recurrent Breast Cancer with Bone Marrow Involvement leading to Short Survival. Was selected among the top ten winners for a podium presentation at ACP National Meeting, Toronto, CA 2010.
9. Kanehira, K., Zakharia, Y., Tan, W., Liu, W., Wilding, G., Edge, S., Tan, D., Khoury, T... (2010) Frozen section versus touch preparation for intraoperative detection of sentinel lymph node metastases from breast cancer. Poster at: United states and Canadian academy of pathology; Washington, DC, a single institution experience of 396 cases, Laboratory Investigation, 90, 54A.
10. Liu, W., Zakharia, Y., Tan, W., Wilding, G., Edge, S., Tan, D., Khoury, T... (2010). Intraoperative detection of sentinel lymph node metastases from breast cancer: does the pathologist experience, subspecialty or the surgeon experience matter? Poster at: United States and Canadian academy of pathology; Washington, DC. Laboratory Investigation, 90, 59A.
11. Elkass, G., Heidarian, S., Ashraf, M.S., Dubson, I., Garankina, O., Gory, A., Louis, B., Galasso, A., Alano, G., Sharma, S., Imtiaz, S., Issa, M., Zakharia, Y. Abd Al-Noor, A., Touma, W., Hussain, S.W., Mathew, N., Hussain, R., Wolf-Klein, G.P... (2009). Physicians' Ethnicity: Does It Affect Nursing Home Placement? Multi-Center study.. Poster presented at: International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics Meeting (IAGG); Paris, France, Poster presented at: The Annual National Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS); Chicago, IL.
12. Zakharia, Y., Rohatgi, A., Ryan, G. (2009, May). Eptifibatide (Integrilin) Induced Thrombocytopenia. Poster presented at: Rochester General Hospital poster day. Rochester, NY.