Monzr M. Al Malki, M.D.

Hematologist/oncologist Monzr M. Al Malki, M.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, director of the unrelated donor bone marrow transplant and haploidentical transplant programs at City of Hope.

Dr. Al Malki is a physician-scientist with a research focus on mismatched related and unrelated donors as sources of stem cells for transplantation to treat patients with blood cancers without access to matched donors. His research focuses mainly on improving access to transplantation in older patients, minorities and patients with refractory blood cancers. He has ongoing studies to improve the safety of mismatched grafts by in-vivo or ex-vivo T cell depletion.

Dr. Al Malki graduated from the Damascus University School of Medicine, Syria in 2003. He continued his education at Cleveland Clinic’s Huron Hospital, completing his internship and residency in internal medicine. He then went on to earn two fellowships — the first in hematology and medical oncology at Boston University School of Medicine Program at Roger William Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island, and the latter here at City of Hope in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. 

Board-certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology, Dr. Al Malki holds memberships with several professional societies including the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is also serving as an inspector-trainee for FACT (Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy).

Dr. Al Malki has served as a postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. He has written several publications and has been invited to do presentations and poster sessions to discuss his work. 

• Al Malki, M. M., London, K., Baez, J., Akahoshi, Y., Hogan, W. J., Etra, A., Choe, H., Hexner, E., Langston, A., Abhyankar, S., Ponce, D. M., DeFilipp, Z., Kitko, C. L., Adekola, K., Reshef, R., Ayuk, F., Capellini, A., Chanswangphuwana, C., Eder, M., Eng, G., … Levine, J. E. (2023). Phase 2 study of natalizumab plus standard corticosteroid treatment for high-risk acute graft-versus-host disease. Blood advances, 7(17), 5189–5198. https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2023009853
• Arslan, S., & Al Malki, M. M. (2022). New strategies for mismatched unrelated donor (MMUD) hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). Hematology. American Society of Hematology. Education Program, 2022(1), 74–82. https://doi.org/10.1182/hematology.2022000398
• Ciurea, S. O., Kothari, A., Sana, S., & Al Malki, M. M. (2023). The mythological chimera and new era of relapse prediction post-transplant. Blood reviews, 57, 100997. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.blre.2022.100997
• Al Malki, M. M., Palmer, J., Tsai, N. C., Mokhtari, S., Hui, S., Tsai, W., Aldoss, I., Ali, H., Aribi, A., Cao, T., Mei, M., Sandhu, K. S., Siddiqi, T., Forman, S. J., Nakamura, R., Marcucci, G., Stein, A., Wong, J. Y. C., & Rosenthal, J. (2022). Total marrow and lymphoid irradiation as conditioning in haploidentical transplant with posttransplant cyclophosphamide. Blood advances, 6(14), 4098–4106. https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2022007264
• Yao, J. M., Yang, D., Clark, M. C., Otoukesh, S., Cao, T., Ali, H., Arslan, S., Aldoss, I., Artz, A., Amanam, I., Salhotra, A., Pullarkat, V., Sandhu, K., Stein, A., Marcucci, G., Forman, S. J., Nakamura, R., & Al Malki, M. M. (2022). Tacrolimus initial steady state level in post-transplant cyclophosphamide-based GvHD prophylaxis regimens. Bone marrow transplantation, 57(2), 232–242. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-021-01528-y
• Carter, M., Taniguchi, M., Yang, D., Arslan, S., Shouse, G., Ali, H., Karras, N., Gendzekhadze, K., & Al Malki, M. M. (2022). Donor-specific HLA antibodies associate with chronic graft-versus-host disease in haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with post-transplant cyclophosphamide. Bone marrow transplantation, 57(1), 134–136. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-021-01494-5
• Ali, H., Ngo, D., Aribi, A., Arslan, S., Dadwal, S., Marcucci, G., Nakamura, R., Forman, S. J., Chen, J., & Al Malki, M. M. (2021). Safety and Tolerability of SARS-CoV2 Emergency-Use Authorized Vaccines for Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients. Transplantation and cellular therapy, 27(11), 938.e1–938.e6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtct.2021.07.008
• Al Malki, M. M., Tsai, N. C., Palmer, J., Mokhtari, S., Tsai, W., Cao, T., Ali, H., Salhotra, A., Arslan, S., Aldoss, I., Karras, N., Karanes, C., Zain, J., Khaled, S., Stein, A., Snyder, D., Marcucci, G., Forman, S. J., & Nakamura, R. (2021). Posttransplant cyclophosphamide as GVHD prophylaxis for peripheral blood stem cell HLA-mismatched unrelated donor transplant. Blood advances, 5(12), 2650–2659. https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021004192
• Malki, M. M. A., Song, J. Y., Yang, D., Cao, T., Aldoss, I., Mokhtari, S., Dadwal, S., Marcucci, G., Karanes, C., Snyder, D., Nademanee, A., Forman, S. J., Nakamura, R., & Pullarkat, V. (2020). Iron Overload Is Associated with Delayed Engraftment and Increased Nonrelapse Mortality in Recipients of Umbilical Cord Blood Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. Biology of blood and marrow transplantation : journal of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, 26(9), 1697–1703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2020.06.002
• Al Malki, M. M., Yang, D., Labopin, M., Afanasyev, B., Angelucci, E., Bashey, A., Socié, G., Karduss-Urueta, A., Helbig, G., Bornhauser, M., Niittyvuopio, R., Ganser, A., Ciceri, F., Brecht, A., Koc, Y., Bejanyan, N., Ferraro, F., Kebriaei, P., Mokhtari, S., Ghobadi, A., … Nagler, A. (2020). Comparing transplant outcomes in ALL patients after haploidentical with PTCy or matched unrelated donor transplantation. Blood advances, 4(9), 2073–2083. https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001499
• Dholaria B, Malki MMA, Artz A, Savani BN. Securing the graft during pandemic: are we ready for cryopreservation for all? Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2020 Jul;26(7):e145-e146. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2020.04.009. Epub 2020 Apr 17. PMID: 32305358; PMCID: PMC7162777.
• M.M.A. Malki, K. Gendzekhadze, D. Yang, S. Mokhtari, P. Parker, C. Karanes, J. Palmer, D. Snyder, S.J. Forman, A. Nademanee, R. Nakamura, Long-term Outcome of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation from Unrelated Donor Using Tacrolimus/Sirolimus-based GvHD Prophylaxis : Impact of HLA Mismatch, Transplantation. 104 (2020) 1070–1080.
• Malki MMA, Song JY, Yang D, Cao T, Aldoss I, Mokhtari S, Dadwal S, Marcucci G, Karanes C, Snyder D, Nademanee A, Forman SJ, Nakamura R, Pullarkat V. Iron Overload is Associated with Delayed Engraftment and Increased Non-Relapse Mortality in Recipients of Umbilical Cord Blood Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2020 Jun 10:S1083-8791(20)30349-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2020.06.002. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32534103.
• Al Malki MM, Yang D, Labopin M, Afanasyev B, Angelucci E, Bashey A, Socié G, Karduss-Urueta A, Helbig G, Bornhauser M, Niittyvuopio R, Ganser A, Ciceri F, Brecht A, Koc Y, Bejanyan N, Ferraro F, Kebriaei P, Mokhtari S, Ghobadi A, Nakamura R, Forman SJ, Champlin R, Mohty M, Ciurea SO, Nagler A. Comparing transplant outcomes in ALL patients after haploidentical with PTCy or matched unrelated donor transplantation. Blood Adv. 2020 May 12;4(9):2073-2083. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001499. PMID: 32396617; PMCID: PMC7218425..
• Malki, MA., Gupta, R., Jamal, F., Yang, D., Chendri, C., Aldoss, I., Salhotra, A., Dobrin, S., Tran, M., Venkataraman, K., Palmer, J., Stein, AS., Sandhu, K., Khaled, S., Aribi, A., Marcucci, G., Forman, SJ., Snyder, D., Nakamura, R., Ali, H., Pullarkat, V. Pulmonary hypertension is associated with increased nonrelapse mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for myelofibrosis. Bone Marrow Transplant (2019) doi:10.1038/s41409-019-0741-8
• Malki, M.M.A., Gendzekhadze, K., Stiller, T. Mokhtari, S., Karanes, C., Snyder, D., Forman, SJ., Nakamura, R., Nademanee, A. Protective effect of HLA-DPB1 mismatch remains valid in reduced-intensity conditioning unrelated donor hematopoietic cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant (2019) doi:10.1038/s41409-019-0694-y
• Al Malki MM, Gendzekhadze K, Yang D, Mokhtari S, Parker P, Karanes C, Palmer J, Snyder D, Forman SJ, Nademanee A, Nakamura R. Long-term outcome of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from unrelated donor using tacrolimus/sirolimus-based GVHD prophylaxis: impact of HLA mismatch. Transplantation. 2019 Aug 19. doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000002932. PMID: 31449184.
• Al Malki MM, Nathwani N, Yang D, Armenian S, Dadwal S, Salman J, Mokhtari S, Cao T, Sandhu K, Rouse M, Mei M, Ali H, Parker P, Alvarnas J, Smith E, Donnell MO, Marcucci G, Snyder D, Nademanee A, Forman SJ, Stein A, Nakamura, R. Melphalan-Based Reduced-Intensity Conditioning is Associated with Favorable Disease Control and Acceptable Toxicities in Patients Older Than 70 with Hematologic Malignancies Undergoing Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2018 May 9. pii:S1083-8791(18)30250-7. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2018.04.029. PMID: 29753158
• Al Malki MM, Jones R, Ma Q, Lee D, Reisner Y, Miller JS, Lang P, Hongeng S, Hari P, Strober S, Yu J, Maziarz R, Mavilio D, Roy DC, Bonini C, Champlin RE, Fuchs EJ, Ciurea SO. Proceedings From the Fourth Haploidentical Stem Cell Transplantation Symposium (HAPLO2016), San Diego, California, December 1, 2016. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2018 May; 24(5): 895-908. doi: 10.1016/jbbmt.2018.01.008. Epub 2018 Jan 12. PMID: 29339270
• Al Malki MM, Aldoss I, Stiller T, Nakamura R, Snyder DS, Forman SJ, Pullarkat V. Outcome of Second Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Patients With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk. 2016 Jun 8. pii: S2152-2650(16)30110-0. doi: 10.1016/j.clml.2016.06.005. [Epub ahead of print]PMID:27394652