Sana Karam, MD, PhD
James S. McDonnell Professor of Radiation Oncology
Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology
Education
- BSN, Nursing Science: American University in Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
- MS, Trauma/Critical Care Nursing: University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
- PhD, Physiology and Biophysics: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
- MD, Medicine: Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Board Certifications
- Certified by the American Board of Radiology
Recognition
- Educator of The Year Award, ARRO (2020)
National award for recognition by the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology as a member of the Program’s Faculty for excellence in teaching. - Recurrent/Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer Task Force, Co-Chair, NCI (2022)
- Co-Chair, AACR-AHNS Head and Neck Cancer Conference, AACR (2022)
- Vice Chair, ASTRO Biology Track, ASTRO (2022)
- NCI Steering Committee Immunosuppressed HN, R/M subcommittee, Co-chair, NCI (2022)
Clinical Interests
Head and neck cancer, pancreatic cancer, recurrent/metastatic disease, immunotherapy combinations with radiation
Biography
Dr. Karam grew up in Lebanon and is the first in her family to go to college. She received her BSN in Nursing Science at the American University of Beirut, where she subsequently worked as a Charge Nurse in the Coronary Care Unit, and then earned her MS in Trauma/Critical Care Nursing at the University of Maryland while working in the Multi-Trauma ICU at the renowned R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. She completed her PhD in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington with a focus in developmental neurobiology, while working in the Critical Care Unit of Harborview Medical Center. After a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical oncology at Johns Hopkins University, she attended medical school and completed her residency in radiation oncology at Georgetown University.
In 2013, Dr. Karam joined the University of Colorado’s Radiation Oncology faculty. As a physician-scientist specializing in the treatment of head and neck and pancreatic cancers, she has led a laboratory research program focusing on how radiation modulates the tumor immune microenvironment. In a 2023 Cancer Cell paper, she showed that simultaneous targeting of the PD-1 and IL2 βγ receptors with radiation therapy has a profound beneficial effect in pancreatic adenocarcinoma models. Her work on head and neck cancers has challenged the paradigm of elective nodal treatment in the context of immunotherapy (Nature Communications, 2022) and advanced the use of combined radiation therapy and immunotherapy from animal models to phase I/Ib human trials (Nature Cancer, 2022).
As a clinical trialist, Dr. Karam runs numerous investigator-initiated trials, focused on direct translation from bench to bedside. She has active clinical and pre-clinical research collaborations for both head and neck as well as pancreatic cancers with multiple industry partners, including Roche, Genentech, Amgen, Tvardi, and AstraZeneca. Dr. Karam is passionate about clinical care and has led multiple population health services studies that have led to several clinical initiatives aimed at improving patient outcomes.
Research
I am a physician-scientist and radiation oncologist specializing in treating patients with head and neck, pancreatic, and CNS malignancies. Our laboratory research encompasses both basic and translational components. Our focus is largely to understand how components of the tumor microenvironment contribute to tumor growth, progression, metastasis, and resistance to therapy. We study cellular dialogues between cancer cell and immune cells and other stromal components like vasculature and fibroblasts. We examine signaling mechanisms within the context of tumor immunology or cancer cell survival to explore treatment resistance with the end goal of tumor eradication and clinical translation. But along the way, we let our curious minds wander in response to intriguing twists in the data as we pursue scientific knowledge.