Associate Professor of Medicine, Academic Institute
Associate Clinical Member, Research Institute
Director, Cockrell Center for Advanced Therapeutics, Research Institute
Houston Methodist
Weill Cornell Medical College
Dr. Abdelrahim is a gastrointestinal medical oncologist and transplant oncologist attending to patients with upper and lower GI malignancies in addition to malignancies treated by liver transplantation. He is the section chief of GI medical oncology leading GI cancer care at Houston Methodist Neal Cancer Center with focus on clinical trial Phase II/III in GI malignancies.
Dr. Abdelrahim serves as the medical Director of Cockrell Center for Advanced Therapeutics where he is oversees Phase I program at Houston Methodist Hospital and Neal Cancer Center. He is a principal investigator on multiple clinical trials with focus on chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy in GI malignancies.
His translational research is focused on developing new mechanism-based drugs for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. He has identified for the first time a new structural class of compounds that can target selective transcription factor that are now recognized as targets for the development of new anticancer drugs. The lead compound of this class reached Phase I clinical trial to treat patients with GI cancers.
Dr Abdelrahim has published more than 130 original research articles, review articles and book chapters in prestigious journals and publishing groups. Dr. Abdelrahim is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, European Society for Medical Oncology and International Liver Transplant Society. He is the site principal investigator for Southwest Oncology Cooperative Group at Houston Methodist Neal Cancer Center. He is on the editorial boards of several medical journals where he serves as Editor-in Chief of Transplant Oncology and Cancer Nursing Care section of Cancers and associate editor of Frontiers in Oncology.
Dr. Abdelrahim completed his pharmacy degree followed by PhD and graduate work in the field of pharmacology and toxicology from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. He obtained his medical degree from Texas A&M University, completed residency at Baylor College of Medicine, and fellowship in medical oncology at Duke University.
Dr. Abdelrahim's research has pinpointed few compounds that inhibit tumor growth and angiogenesis in-part by inducing proteasome-dependent degradation of selected Sp proteins in cancer cells and tumors. The lead compound of this class (Tolfenamic acid) has reached Phase I clinical trial to treat patients with advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer in combination with gemcitabine and radiation therapy. Dr. Abdelrahim has a patent application submitted for the new use of these compounds in GI cancers. In prior research, he was the first to find that Sp4 protein is over expressed in GI cancers including pancreatic cancer and that the role of Sp4 can be equally important as Sp1 in some type of GI cancers.
Researchers in cancer have the ultimate responsibility of taking their findings to the clinic which is described as translational research. By seeing GI cancer patients in his practice, collaborating with translational scientists in the lab and conducting and directing clinical trials, Dr. Abdelrahim hopes to continue to fuel the translational research cycle from lab to clinic and back to the lab.
