UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh named Amer Zureikat, MD as chief of surgical oncology at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and vice chair of surgery for surgical oncology in the UPMC Department of Surgery.
Dr. Zureikat also was awarded the UPMC Chair in Clinical Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; additionally, he is the division chief for gastrointestinal (GI) surgical oncology.
“We are confident that Dr. Zureikat will lead our surgical oncology programs to even greater national and international prominence,” says Robert Ferris, MD, director, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. “He is responsible for building care teams to provide the best patient outcomes and for developing innovative pre-surgical clinical trials to give patients access to novel treatments throughout the vast Hillman network.”
Dr. Zureikat is an expert in pancreatic and other GI cancers and practices state-of-the-art robotic surgery. International specialists have come to UPMC for Dr. Zureikat’s robotic surgery training program, which provides an intensive learning experience through a robotic surgery simulator, surgery observation, and skills tests.
In addition to his work in Pittsburgh, Dr. Zureikat established a new clinic at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Erie, Pennsylvania. There, he will examine patients with complex GI cancers and determine the best treatment path.
The new clinic should enable all cancer treatment to take place in Erie, except for the most complex surgeries.
Dr. Zureikat has written or co-written more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and reviews on outcomes of GI and pancreatic cancer and robotic and minimally invasive pancreatic surgery. He also is the chief principal investigator on several clinical trials at Pitt.