Sanaz Memarzadeh, M.D., Ph.D.

When she isn’t practicing as a surgeon, Memarzadeh is conducting research to advance our understanding of gynecologic cancers and address unanswered questions from the clinic. Her work in ovarian cancer has focused on characterizing platinum resistant tumor cells while simultaneously developing and testing strategies to eliminate them. Despite initial positive response to surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy, up to 85% of patients with ovarian cancer experience relapse of disease. 

As a physician-scientist, Memarzadeh seeks to develop and execute clinical trials that can translate her scientific findings into potential therapies to help advance the care of patients with gynecologic cancers. Recently, she successfully tested two cell-based immunotherapy approaches in targeting ovarian cancer. Based on promising results of these studies, Memarzadeh’s G.O. Discovery Lab is in the early phases of devising a clinical trial to test the efficacy of these new immunotherapy options.

Memarzadeh also studies tumor and stromal cell interactions in the development and hormone treatment-responsiveness of endometrial cancer — the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States. Her ongoing work is focused on characterizing both tumor cells and the immunosuppressive microenvironment in aggressive subtypes of endometrial cancer. She is also interested in the causes of uterine cancers, including endometrial carcinosarcoma and uterine sarcomas, and studies the genetic pathways that can initiate these tumors in order to better target them during treatment. Memarzadeh hopes her research will impact the lives of patients from bench to bedside and back.