Amit B Agarwal, MD, PhD

Dr. Agarwal is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. He is board certified in Hematology and Oncology and his clinical and research interest is focused on hematological malignancies especially plasma cell disorders including multiple myeloma. Dr. Agarwal has experience serving on the Scientific Review Committee for the University of Arizona Cancer Center. His doctoral work at the Virginia Commonwealth University involved the study of Ras oncogenes in murine models. He developed a transgenic MMTV-KRAS mouse model and studied functional differences between HRAS and KRAS oncogenes. Dr. Agarwal subsequently completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Hematology and Oncology. During this time, he was involved in research with hematological malignancies. He was part of the team studying MLN8237, an aurora kinase inhibitor in the lab of Dr. Daruka Mahadevan. Dr. Agarwal participated in preclinical studies to evaluate the role of the drug in T-cell lymphomas. This work was published in Leukemia Research in 2013. Following this, Dr. Agarwal was involved in the phase II clinical trial of MLN8237 in peripheral T-cell lymphoma as a multi-institutional study. This study was published in JCO in 2013. Dr. Agarwal has also studied CLL and aspects of stage progression. This work was published in Leukemia Research in 2014. His subsequent research interest has focused on plasma cell disorders. He has been involved with clinical trials and translational research in MGUS, SMM and MM. Dr. Agarwal has had the opportunity to work throughout the bench to bedside process and understand the important measures of translational study design. He has also participated in the Arizona Clinical and Translational Research certificate course offered through the College of Public Health at the University of Arizona and have a good understanding of statistical aspects of study design. Given his background, Dr. Agarwal believes that he is well equipped to serve on the Scientific Review Committee at the University of Arizona Cancer Center.