Roles
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Associate Director, Sylvester Myeloma Institute
Assistant Director, Clinical Research Services, Office of Clinical Research, Sylvester Myeloma Institute
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Biography
Dr. Kazandjian received his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and was subsequently commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps. He completed an internal medicine residency at Wilford Hall Medical Center and remained on faculty as an active-duty physician, attending internist, assistant professor, and researcher. After six years of active duty (including a stint in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom) he continued his training at the National Institutes of Health and completed fellowships in medical oncology and hematology. Dr. Kazandjian subsequently remained at the NCI Intramural Research Program as a physician-scientist, clinical researcher, and head of the Myeloma Program in the Lymphoid Malignancies Branch. Additionally, he had a dual-appointment with the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence where he served as Associate Director of the FDA-NCI Clinical Investigator Program and has had a lead role on a number of drug approvals.
As a clinician and researcher, Dr. Kazandjian focuses on multiple myeloma and its precursor conditions, monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) and smoldering myeloma. His research interests lie in developing modern and novel laboratory techniques, including next-generation sequencing to advance monitoring of minimal residual disease. He has authored numerous articles in the peer-reviewed literature.Dr. Kazandjian currently serves as Professor of Medicine in the Division of Myeloma and Associate Director for Clinical Trials Research at the Sylvester Myeloma Institute where he leads a number of groundbreaking clinical trials. Additionally, he serves as Assistant Director, Clinical Research Services, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami. -
Education & Training
Education
Post Graduate Training
Licensures and Certifications
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Honors & Awards
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Research Interests
My key programmatic areas of interest which I have continued to pursue at University of Miami include development of novel drug and immune-based therapies and early intervention of myeloma precursor disease. I have incorporated the validated molecular and genomic signatures developed in our Genomic Research Laboratory to select smoldering myeloma patients who have an early diagnosis of multiple myeloma versus patients who are likely to have a persistent MGUS-like phenotype. Importantly, our group has shown that genomic profiling of high-risk smoldering myeloma shows virtually identical genomic signatures compared to multiple myeloma, indicating that a high percentage of high-risk smoldering myeloma truly represents “early detection” of multiple myeloma rather than a separate entity, i.e. Moreover, recent results based on novel, low DNA input whole genome sequencing allowed the identification of which MGUS cases are progressors versus non-progressors. Complementary to the above, I have a mid-term goal of developing a population cohort study in South Florida with the objective of capturing the natural history and prevalence of myeloma precursor conditions in a region largely Latin and not comprehensively studied in the past. The molecular biologic underpinnings of the racial differences in incidence, age of onset, and clinical outcomes that exist in multiple myeloma are largely unknown. -
Publications
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Professional Activities
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