Ayad Hamdan, MD

Ayad Hamdan, MD, is a board-certified hematologist who specializes in treating people with cancers of the blood and lymph system, including lymphoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, myeloproliferative neoplasms and myelodysplastic syndromes. He offers chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CAR T-cell therapy harnesses the patient's own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. It is just one of many types of personalized cancer therapies offered at UC San Diego Health.

As a physician in UC San Diego Health's Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, Dr. Hamdan provides comprehensive blood and marrow transplant services, including autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation for all hematologic malignancies, with a focus on B cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's lymphoma. In addition, Dr. Hamdan's clinical expertise and research interests include apheresis (stem cell collections), clinical innovation and quality improvement.

In 2023, Dr. Hamdan was appointed as physician-in-chief of Moores Cancer Center and cancer services, overseeing clinical operations and all related inpatient and outpatient oncology services at UC San Diego Health as well as operations with affiliates and outreach clinics.

As a professor in the Department of Medicine, he trains medical students, residents and fellows at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Hamdan has co-authored numerous articles and his work has appeared in medical and research publications, including Blood Journal, Lancet Hematology, Transfusion, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of Immunotherapy and the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, Dr. Hamdan was an attending physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, in Boston. He was also the site investigator for the HIV/AIDS Malignancy Consortium (a National Cancer Institute-supported clinical trials group) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, as well as the medical director for apheresis and infusion services.

Dr. Hamdan completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology through the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Medical School program and his residency in internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He holds a medical degree from the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Beirut, Lebanon. He is board certified in hematology and internal medicine.

Dr. Hamdan is a member of the American Society of Apheresis, American Society of Hematology and American Medical Association.

He is fluent in Arabic.

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