Amer Zeidan, MBBS

Amer Zeidan, MBBS, MHS is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology). Dr. Zeidan completed a hematology/oncology fellowship and a clinical research fellowship in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) at Johns Hopkins University where he also earned a Master of Health Science (MHS) degree in Clinical Investigation. He received his MBBS degree from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan before completing his internal medicine residency at Rochester General Hospital, Rochester, NY. Dr. Zeidan specializes in the management of MDS and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the clinical management of myeloid malignancies. Dr. Zeidan is the principal investigator on several investigator-initiated, cooperative group, and industry sponsored clinical trials in MDS, AML, and other hematologic malignancies. Dr. Zeidan focuses on the use of immunotherapy, especially combination-based approaches for myeloid malignancies.

Dr. Zeidan is the national study chair of two multi-center trials in the NCI’s Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) evaluating the addition of the anti-PD-1 antibody, pembrolizumab to standard therapies in MDS and chronic myeloid leukemia. He is the principal investigator (PI) of multiple investigator-initiated trials in AML and MDS. In addition to these investigator-initiated trials within the NCI networks and in collaboration with industry, Dr. Zeidan is the local Yale PI for multiple NCI-sponsored and several phase I/II/III industry-sponsored clinical trials in myeloid malignancies in which he was heavily involved in the design of and led accrual nationally in several trials. Dr. Zeidan is also chairing the steering committee for a large pharma-sponsored randomized trial of MDS. Dr. Zeidan is currently Vice Chair of the Data Safety Monitoring Committee at Yale Cancer Center.

Another area of interest for Dr. Zeidan is effectiveness and outcomes research in hematologic malignancies; a type of research that evaluates how much benefit patients achieve from existing treatments at the real-world community level in comparison to what is seen in the controlled clinical trials setting. This research aims to identify barriers and ultimately study strategies that could improve outcomes of patients with myeloid malignances at the population level. Dr. Zeidan conducts this research with collaborators from the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center at Yale. He has also extensively studied the factors that impact development of therapy-related myeloid malignancies including etiological considerations at the population level including risk stratification and clinical outcomes of these patients.

Dr. Zeidan has been awarded the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award (ASCO YIA), the Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation (AAMDSIF)/Edward P. Evans Foundation- MDS Clinical Research Consortium Fellowship Award, The Tito Bastianello Young Investigator Award, and multiple abstract achievement and travel awards. Dr. Zeidan has most recently received the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar in Clinical Research Award and the NCI’s Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award. Dr. Zeidan has presented his research in multiple national and international meetings and has been an invited speaker nationally and internationally about MDS and AML including China, Mexico, Bulgaria, Spain, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, South Korea, Portugal, Jordan, and others. He was the lead presenter of MDS review at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting 2018 highlights meetings in USA and Asia-Pacific. Dr. Zeidan also delivered a talk about management of MDS at the ASH Meeting on hematologic malignancies in 2019.

Dr. Zeidan is a member of the Northern American National Cooperative groups’ MDS Working Group which is working to implement precision medicine to develop MDS master clinical protocols for North America. Dr. Zeidan is also a member of the International Working Group for the Prognosis of MDS (IWG-PM) working to improve prognostic and predictive assessments in MDS. Dr. Zeidan has served a tenure on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) clinical guidelines for MDS panel. He is an author on more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, most of which as first or senior author including more than 60 original research papers. Dr. Zeidan also serves on the editorial board of important hematology journals such as Blood Reviews and Leukemia and Lymphoma and has been an ad hoc reviewer for many prestigious journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Oncology, Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAMA Oncology, and many others.