Saira Hassan, M.D., Joins UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute as a Specialist in Genitourinary Cancer

By Linda Haymes

“Having Dr. Hassan join our staff strengthens and broadens the already-excellent level of care we offer here at the Cancer Institute,” said Issam Makhoul, M.D., professor and director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the UAMS College of Medicine and director of Grand Rounds.

She will also serve as an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine as well as a researcher.

Her long-term research goals are to identify genes that make cancer resistant to certain types of therapies and to develop pharmacological methods to target these genes.

Before joining UAMS, she was practicing oncology with Texas Oncology at El Paso, Texas, and working in Pakistan in a tertiary care referral cancer center. She has worked for more than 10 years in oncology/hematology.

She has worked as a clinical fellow in hematology and oncology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Her fellowship included eight months of subspecialty clinical and research electives at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Hassan graduated from King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan. She worked as a staff physician at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center from 2004 to 2006 before doing her residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas in Houston, Texas, and becoming board certified in hematology and oncology in 2009.

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,275 students, 890 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.

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