Waddah Arafat, M.D.
Assistant Professor

Dr. Arafat specializes in Genitourinary Malignancies (Testicular, Bladder, Prostate, Kidney, Penile and Adrenal). He has special expertise in treating Testicular Cancer driven by his prior training at Indiana University under Dr. Lawrence Einhorn. He currently leads the Germ Cell Tumor Board at UT Southwestern. His clinical research focus is on novel therapeutic agents and combinations and he serves as the UTSW principal investigator of multiple bladder cancer national and international clinical trials.

He serves as the Medical Director of Cancer Clinical Informatics at the UTSW Simmons Cancer Center in addition to Deputy Chief Medical Informatics Officer at the UTSW Health System. His work focuses on optimizing the use of technology in improving the care of cancer patients. He received research funding from the National Cancer Center Network to create tools to automatically increase the integration of Genomic information into patient care.

He earned his medical degree from Damascus University, and then pursued residency training at Indiana University. Driven by his passion to care for patients with cancer, he completed fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Due to his focus on genitourinary malignancies at Indiana diversity and University of Wisconsin, he decided to join UTSW’s strong genitourinary multidisciplinary group of Urologists, Medical Oncologist and Radiation Oncologist and to participate in the robust research programs available at UTSW.

Medical School

Damascus University School of Medicine, Syria (2009)

Residency

Alshami Hospital, Syria (2010), Internal Medicine

Residency

Indiana University School of Medicine (2013), Internal Medicine

Fellowship

University of Wisconsin Health Sciences Center (2018), Hematology Oncology

• Bladder Cancer
• Kidney Cancer
• Novel Therapeutics and Biomarker Studies
• Prostate Cancer
• Testicular Cancer

Featured Publications

Stereotactic Ablative Radiation Therapy for Oligoprogressive Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Schoenhals JE, Mohamad O, Christie A, Zhang Y, Li D, Singla N, Bowman I, Arafat W, Hammers H, Courtney K, Cole S, Bagrodia A, Margulis V, Desai N, Garant A, Choy H, Timmerman R, Brugarolas J, Hannan R, Adv Radiat Oncol 2021 Sep-Oct 6 5 100692

Oncologist Perspectives on Telemedicine for Patients With Cancer: A National Comprehensive Cancer Network Survey.

Tevaarwerk AJ, Chandereng T, Osterman T, Arafat W, Smerage J, Polubriaginof FCG, Heinrichs T, Sugalski J, Martin DB, JCO Oncol Pract 2021 Jul OP2100195

Disparities in Pre-Orchiectomy Sperm Cryopreservation Among Testicular Cancer Patients at a Public Safety Net Hospital and a Private Tertiary Care Center.

Patel A, Howard JM, Chertack N, Badia RR, Margulis V, Woldu SL, Courtney K, Bowman IA, Arafat W, Meng X, Bakare T, Bagrodia A, Urology 2021 Jul

Development and initial clinical testing of a multiplexed circulating tumor cell assay in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Bade RM, Schehr JL, Emamekhoo H, Gibbs BK, Rodems TS, Mannino MC, Desotelle JA, Heninger E, Stahlfeld CN, Sperger JM, Singh A, Wolfe SK, Niles DJ, Arafat W, Steinharter JA, Jason Abel E, Beebe DJ, Wei XX, McKay RR, Choueri TK, Lang JM, Mol Oncol 2021 Feb

Prophylaxis Against Thromboembolic Events During Chemotherapy for Germ Cell Cancer.

Meng X, Ahmed M, Courtney KD, Arafat W, Ibrahim I, Margulis V, Nichols C, Bagrodia A, Front Oncol 2021 11 724682

Phase II trial of stereotactic ablative radiation (SAbR) for oligometastatic kidney cancer.

Hannan, R, Christensen, M, Robles,L, Christie, A, Garant,A, Desai, NB, Hammers, HJ, Arafat, W, Bowman, IA, Cole, S, Courtney, KD, Woldu, SL, Bagrodia, A, Margulis, V, Cadeddu, JA, Choy, H, Sher, D, Brugarolas J, Journal of Clinical Oncology 2021 39(6_suppl) p. 311-311.

Overcoming sociodemographic factors in the care of patients with testicular cancer at a safety net hospital.

Chertack N, Ghandour RA, Singla N, Freifeld Y, Hutchinson RC, Courtney K, Bowman IA, Arafat W, Meng X, Moore JA, Aydin AM, Sagalowsky AI, Margulis V, Lotan Y, Woldu SL, Bagrodia A, Cancer 2020 10 126 19 4362-4370

Prospective Safety and Feasibility trial of Nivolumab and Stereotactic Ablative Radiation Therapy (SAbR) for Metastatic Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (mRCC)

S.All, A.Diaz de Leon, O.Mohamad, H.Choy, H.Hammers, A.Sanjeevaiah, W.Arafat, K.Courtney, R.D.Timmermanm J.Brugarolas, R.Hannan International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics 2020 108 3, suppl_1 e896-e897

Intra-patient heterogeneity in urothelial cancer (UC) circulating tumor cells (CTC) and PDL1 expression to identify biomarkers of response and new therapeutic targets: A pilot study.

Arafat, W, Stahlfeld, C, Sperger, JM, Heninger, E, Gopalakrishnan, D, Barata, PC, Lamenza, M, Devonshire, S, Hoxha, N, Profusek, P, Rini, Bi, Ornstein, MC, Garcia, JA, Kyriakopoulos, C, Lang, JM, Grivas, P Journal of Clinical Oncology 2017 35, no. 15_suppl

Development and clinical validation of circulating tumor cell (CTC) biomarkers in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) for the OMNIVORE clinical trial.

Arafat, W, Desotelle, J, Rodems, T, McKay, RR, Abel, J, Choueiri, TK, Lang, JM Journal of Clinical Oncology 2017 35, no. 15_suppl p. 4579-4579.

 Featured Books

Epidemiology of Mediastinal Germ Cell Neoplasms. In Modern Thoracic Oncology

Albany, C., W. Arafat, and L.H. Einhorn (2018). World Scientific Publishing Company, Incorporated

Clinical Presentation and Diagnosis of Mediastinal Germ Cell Neoplasms. In Modern Thoracic Oncology

Albany, C., W. Arafat, and L.H. Einhorn (2018). World Scientific Publishing Company, Incorporated.

• Fellow Award
  Wisconsin Association of Hematology and Oncology (2017)