Azra Raza

Raza was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and became

interested in biology and evolution as a child. She completed her undergraduate medical education at Dow Medical College in Pakistan.

Raza moved to Buffalo, New York, for a residency at Roswell Park, where she researched the biology and pathology of myeloid malignancies. At the age of 39, Raza was named a professor at Rush University in Chicago. At Rush, she worked as the Charles Arthur Weaver Professor of Cancer Research, and went on to be the first director of the school's Division of Myeloid Diseases. She was later named the Director of Hematology and Oncology at the [[University of Massachusetts|University of

Massachusetts]], and the Gladys Smith Martin Chair in Oncology later still. Raza was also the Director of the Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Center at St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Raza later became Professor of Medicine and Director of the MDS Center at Columbia University.

name="Journal">{{cite web|url=https://in-sightjournal.com/2013/06/18/dr-azra-raza-m-d-professor-and-director-of-mds-center-at-columbia-university/|title=Dr. Azra Raza, M.D.: Professor and Director of MDS Center, at Columbia University|date=18 June 2013|publisher=}}

name="DailyNews">{{cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/not-bring-advances-lab-bedside-article-1.280311|title=We are not doing enough to bring the advances in the lab to the bedside|website=New York Daily News |date=21 April 2008 |publisher=}}{{Cite web |url=http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=282885 |title=Teachers rejoice at their former student's talent, achievements |access-date=2017-05-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160215135211/http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=282885 |archive-date=2016-02-15 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/702808/in-10-years-patients-will-be-able-to-live-with-cancer|title=In 10 years patients will be able to live with cancer|first=The Newspaper's Staff|last=Reporter|date=15 March 2012|publisher=}}

Raza's research has defined the cell cycle kinetics of myeloid leukemia cells in vivo in myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia by studying cellular proliferation in patients. Her work led later researchers to believe that low blood counts were not a result of bone marrow failure, but instead

a hyper-proliferative state in the marrow tissue, leading to hematopoietic cell apoptosis.

Raza has also developed a tissue bank of cancer patients that contains several thousand specimens of patient tissue for her research (60,000k+); she uses the samples to identify treatment programs through genetic testing. This also resulted in a research partnership with Cancer Genetics in 2014, "to identify more accurate diagnostic and prognostic markers for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), as well as novel therapies to target this class of bone marrow

cancers."{{cite web|url=http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Cancer+Genetics+(CGIX),+Columbias+Azra+Raza+Enter+Research+Collaboration/9904680.html|title=Cancer Genetics (CGIX), Columbia's Azra Raza Enter Research Collaboration|publisher=}} Her research into acute myeloid leukemia has shown that a mutation in osteoclasts of patients with the disease could be one of the causes of the cancer they develop.{{cite news|title=Hit the Cancer Where It Lives: A New Approach to Treating AML|first=Yael|last=Waknine|date=January 27, 2014|url=http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/819764|work=Medscape}}

Raza has also used genomic technology to further research the pathology of myelodysplastic syndrome, as well as RNA sequence and global methylation studies, and was a part of President Barack Obama's "cancer moonshot" program that reported to Vice-president Joe Biden.{{cite web|url=https://www.statnews.com/2016/01/18/obama-science-cancer-moonshot/|title=Obama's bet on science about far more than 'moonshot'|first=Frances B. Hunt|last=says|date=18 January 2016|website=STAT}}{{cite web|url=https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/01/20/will-take-cancer-moonshot-cure-become-success/|title=What will it take for cancer 'moonshot' cure to become reality?|date=20 January 2016|publisher=}}{{cite web|url=http://www.toledoblade.com/S-Amjad-Hussain/2015/03/30/New-York-story-Under-a-strange-roof-thinking-of-home.html|title=New York story: Under a strange roof, thinking of home|date=30 March 2015|publisher=}}

Raza's 2009 book Ghalib: Epistemologies of Elegance, co-written with Sara Suleri Goodyear, analyzed the work of the Urdu poet Ghalib, and included translations of Ghalib's Ghazals that the co-authors performed themselves.{{cite web

|url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00fwp/published/ghalibreview2009.pdf|title=Ghalib: Epistemologies of Elegance

|website=columbia.edu|access-date=6 August 2023}} Raza also hosts Pakistani artists during visits to New York City.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/entertainment/30-Nov-2015/hamid-ali-khan-mesmerizes-audience-at-musical-soiree-in-new-york|title = Hamid Ali Khan mesmerizes audience at musical soiree in New York|date = 30 November 2015}} She also co-wrote Myelodysplastic Syndromes & Secondary Acute Myelogenous Leukemia: Directions for the New Millennium in 2001.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=okKEBwAAQBAJ&q=Azra+Raza|title=Myelodysplastic Syndromes & Secondary Acute Myelogenous Leukemia: Directions for the New Millennium|first1=Azra|last1=Raza|first2=Suneel D.|last2=Mundle|date=6 December 2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9781461514633|via=Google Books}}

Raza's work has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Blood, Cancer, Cancer Research, British Journal of Haematology, Leukemia, and Leukemia Research.{{cite web|url=http://www.nyp.org/physician/Araza|title=Azra Raza, MD- NewYork-Presbyterian|website=www.nyp.org}} She has also contributed to newspapers as an author,{{cite web|url=http://www.mdsbeacon.com/author/azra-raza/|title=Azra Raza, MD - The MDS Beacon|website=www.mdsbeacon.com|access-date=2017-05-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170621031253/http://www.mdsbeacon.com/author/azra-raza/|archive-date=2017-06-21|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/12/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-for-retirement-edge-org|title=What scientific idea is ready for retirement?|first=The|last=Observer|newspaper=The Observer |date=12 January 2014|publisher=|via=The Guardian}} and has provided talks to organizations like TEDx New York.{{cite web|url=http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2015/01/azra-raza-why-curing-cancer-is-so-hard.html|title=3quarksdaily: Azra Raza: Why curing cancer is so hard|website=www.3quarksdaily.com|date=20 January 2015}}

The hypothesis that early detection and prevention of cancer may be the most efficient solution for the cancer was summarized in Raza's essay in The Wall Street Journal entitled "Cancer is still beating us. We need a new start".{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/cancer-is-still-beating-uswe-need-a-new-start-11570206319|title=Cancer Is Still Beating Us—We Need a New Start|last=Raza|first=Azra|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=4 October 2019|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-01}}

Raza's 2019 book The First Cell has received critical acclaim from many sources:

• The New York Times, Books to Watch For in October 2019
• Amazon, Top 100 Books of 2019{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_14?ie=UTF8&node=17296236011|title=Amazon editors' best science pick and top 100 of the year 2019|last=|first=|date=|website=Amazon|access-date=}}{{deadlink|date=September 2023}}
• LitHub, Most Anticipated Books of 2019{{Cite web|url=https://lithub.com/lit-hubs-most-anticipated-books-of-2019-part-2/4/|title=Most anticipated books of 2019|last=|first=|date=9 July 2019|website=LitHub|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830210152/https://lithub.com/lit-hubs-most-anticipated-books-of-2019-part-2/4/ |archive-date=2019-08-30 |access-date=}}
• BookRiot, Must-Read Books on Cancer{{Cite web|url=https://bookriot.com/2019/10/30/cancer-books/|title=20 must-read books about cancer|last=|first=|date=30 October 2019|website=BookRiot|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200306204411/https://bookriot.com/2019/10/30/cancer-books/ |archive-date=2020-03-06 |access-date=}}
• Amazon, Best Science Books of 2019
• Starred Review from Publishers Weekly
• Starred Review from Kirkus

Henry Marsh, in the New York Times, wrote, "Raza suggests the first cancer cell that gives rise to a tumor is like a grain of sand that precipitates the collapse of a sand pile. Research, she says, should concentrate on finding these early changes, before an actual tumor develops."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/books/review/the-first-cell-azra-raza.html|title=An Oncologist Asks When It's Time to Say 'Enough'|last=Marsh|first=Henry|date=2019-10-15|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-12-02|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

The Times (London) reported, "Her most ambitious project, though, is the MDS-AML (myelodysplastic syndromes-acute myeloid leukaemia) Tissue Repository, in which tissue from every bone marrow biopsy she has taken over 35 years is banked. Founded in 1984, it's the oldest repository of its kind created by a single physician and contains 60,000 samples from Raza's patients, including, painfully, her husband's."{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/article/azra-razas-mission-to-spot-cancer-earlier-zmhwpbc30|title=Azra Raza's mission to spot cancer earlier|last=Mulkerrins|first=Jane|date=2019-11-20|work=The Times|access-date=2019-12-01|language=en|issn=0140-0460}}

Barbara Kiser wrote in Nature: "Each year, the United States spends US$150 billion on treating cancer. Yet as oncologist Azra Raza notes in this incisive critique-cum-memoir, the treatments remain largely the same. Raza wants to see change: eliminating the first cancer cell rather than 'chasing after the last', which is doable with current technologies. Meanwhile, she braids often-harrowing stories of patients, including her own husband, with insights gleaned from laboratory and literature on this complex, often confounding array of diseases."{{Cite journal|last=Kiser|first=Barbara|date=2019-10-30|title=H. G. Wells, Disney's pioneering women and an oncologist's memoir: Books in brief|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=574|issue=7780|pages=625|doi=10.1038/d41586-019-03269-x|bibcode=2019Natur.574..625K|doi-access=}}

Raza was married to the late Harvey David Preisler, Director of Rush Cancer Institute.{{cite news|author=Janega, James|date=23 May 2002|title=Dr. Harvey D. Preisler, 61|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-05-23-0205230193-story.html}} They have one daughter, Sheherzad Raza Preisler, who also lives in New York.

Raza was a Hope Funds for Cancer Research honoree in

2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.hope-funds.org/honorees/2012-honorees/|title=2012 Honorees|date=18 January 2012|publisher=}} She also received the Distinguished Services in the Field of Research and Clinical

Medicine award from Dow Medical College in

2014.{{cite web|url=http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2014/11/dr-azra-raza-our-collective-spiritual-suicide.html|title=3quarksdaily: Speech by Dr. Azra Raza: Our Collective Spiritual Suicide|website=www.3quarksdaily.com|date=3 November 2014}} Raza is the namesake of the Dr. Azra Raza scholarship award at her secondary school alma mater, Islamabad Model

College for Girls

F-7/2.{{cite web|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/890349/convocation-islamabad-model-college-for-girls-confers-degrees-upon-students/|title=Convocation: Islamabad Model College for Girls confers degrees upon students - The Express Tribune|date=22 May 2015|publisher=}}{{cite web|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/711424/convocation-imcg-post-graduate-students-celebrate-their-achievements/|title=Convocation: IMCG — Post Graduate students celebrate their achievements - The Express Tribune|date=22 May 2014|publisher=}}

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Category:American academics of Pakistani descent

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Pakistani emigrants to the United States

Category:Dow Medical College alumni