Yana G. Najjar, MD, is a translational investigator and cutaneous oncologist at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, where she also is an associate professor of medicine and Director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center. Dr. Najjar specializes in early phase clinical trials and in the treatment of advanced melanoma and skin cancers. Her research focuses on immunotherapy resistant melanoma and rare melanoma subtypes. She has developed multiple investigator-initiated trials that aim to overcome mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy. Her lab is focused on various correlative analyses from investigator-initiated trials. Dr. Najjar's research is funded by the NIH, the Department of Defense, and the Melanoma Research Alliance.
- BS, Biology, American University of Beirut, 2005
- MD, American University of Beirut, 2009
- Post-Doctoral Fellowship, NIH, NCI, 2011
- Residency, The Cleveland Clinic, 2014
- Fellowship, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, 2017
Education & Training
Najjar YG, Orloff M, Mitchell TC, Bowles TL, Betof Warner A, Bollin K, Chandra S, Cohen JV, Eroglu Z, Funchain P, Gaughan E, Glitza Oliva I, Hsu S, Hu-Lieskovan S, Kennedy LB, Truong TG, McKean M, Mehnert J, Moon H, Tsai KK, Wilson M, Tran T, Buchbinder EI, Fecher LA, Guild S, Patel SP. Proceedings of the seventh annual Women in Melanoma Conference. Ther Adv Med Oncol. 2025 Jun 14;17:17588359251342039. PMID: 40535733.
Augustin RC, Huang Z, Ding F, Zhai S, McArdle J, Santisi A, Davis M, Sander C, Davar D, Kirkwood JM, Delgoffe GM, Warner AB, Najjar YG. Metformin is associated with improved clinical outcomes in patients with melanoma: a retrospective, multi-institutional study. Front Oncol. 2023 Jun 16;13:1075823. PMID: 37397389.
Shaikh SS, Zang Y, Hanmer J, Wang H, Lin Y, Davar D, Zarour HM, Kirkwood JM, Najjar YG. Phase I trial of pembrolizumab plus vemurafenib and cobimetinib in patients with metastatic melanoma. Front Oncol. 2022 Nov 23;12:1022496. PMID: 36505793.
Shaikh SS, Yang X, Fortman DD, Wang H, Davar D, Luke JJ, Zarour H, Kirkwood JM, Najjar YG. A retrospective analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on staging at presentation of patients with invasive melanoma. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2022 Oct;87(4):906-908. PMID: 35551967.
Najjar YG, McCurry D, Lin H, Lin Y, Zang Y, Davar D, Karunamurthy A, Drabick JJ, Neves RI, Butterfield LH, Ernstoff MS, Puzanov I, Skitzki JJ, Bordeaux J, Summit IB, Bender JO, Kim JY, Chen B, Sarikonda G, Pahuja A, Tsau J, Alfonso Z, Laing C, Pingpank JF, Holtzman MP, Sander C, Rose A, Zarour HM, Kirkwood JM, Tarhini AA. Neoadjuvant Pembrolizumab and High-Dose IFNα-2b in Resectable Regionally Advanced Melanoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2021 Aug 1;27(15):4195-4204. PMID: 33753453.
Najjar YG, Ding F, Lin Y, VanderWeele R, Butterfield LH, Tarhini AA. Melanoma antigen-specific effector T cell cytokine secretion patterns in patients treated with ipilimumab. J Transl Med. 2017 Feb 21;15(1):39. PMID: 28222797.
Najjar YG, Rayman P, Jia X, Pavicic PG Jr, Rini BI, Tannenbaum C, Ko J, Haywood S, Cohen P, Hamilton T, Diaz-Montero CM, Finke J. Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cell Subset Accumulation in Renal Cell Carcinoma Parenchyma Is Associated with Intratumoral Expression of IL1β, IL8, CXCL5, and Mip-1α. Clin Cancer Res. 2017 May 1;23(9):2346-2355. PMID: 27799249.
Najjar YG, Navrazhina K, Ding F, Bhatia R, Tsai K, Abbate K, Durden B, Eroglu Z, Bhatia S, Park S, Chowdhary A, Chandra S, Kennedy J, Puzanov I, Ernstoff M, Vachhani P, Drabick J, Singh A, Xu T, Yang J, Carvajal R, Manson D, Kirkwood JM, Cohen J, Sullivan R, Johnson D, Funchain P, Shoushtari A. Ipilimumab plus nivolumab for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma: a multicenter, retrospective study. J Immunother Cancer. 2020 Jun;8(1):e000331. PMID: 32581057.
Najjar YG, Kirkwood JM. Neoadjuvant treatment for melanoma: current challenges and future perspectives. Melanoma Manag. 2016 Jun;3(2):149-159. PMID: 30190883.
Najjar YG, Menk AV, Sander C, Rao U, Karunamurthy A, Bhatia R, Zhai S, Kirkwood JM, Delgoffe GM. Tumor cell oxidative metabolism as a barrier to PD-1 blockade immunotherapy in melanoma. JCI Insight. 2019 Mar 7;4(5):e124989. PMID: 30721155.
- Participant, AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Clinical Trials Workshop, 2016
- T32 Training in Cancer Therapeutics Research, 2016
- UPMC/UPCI Skin Spore Pilot Career Enhancement Project (CEP) Award, 2017
- SITC Sparkathon, Awardee and Project Leader, 2017
- Member, Women’s Task Force, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, 2017
- Department of Defense (DoD) Translational Team Science Award: Principal Investigator. CA170483, 2018
- Director, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Basic Research & Translational Seminar series, 2018
- Member, Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, 2018
- Vice-Chair, Protocol Review Committee, 2019
- Melanoma Research Alliance, Team Science Award, Co-PI, 2020
