Raza was born in Karachi, Pakistan became interested in biology as well as evolution as a child. Raza then went to medical school in order to study biological sciences at Dow Medical College.
Academic and research positions
Raza moved to Buffalo to take a residency at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, where she researched the biology and pathology of myeloid malignancies. At the age of 39, Raza was named a Full Professor at Rush University in Chicago. Following this she worked as Charles Arthur Weaver Professor of Cancer Research at Rush University, where she also became the first Director of the Division of Myeloid Diseases. She was later named the Director of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Massachusetts, and then the Gladys Smith Martin Chair in Oncology. Raza was also the Director of the Myelodysplastic Syndrome Center at St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center. Raza later became Professor of Medicine and Director of Myelodysplastic Syndrome Center at Columbia University.
Research
Raza's research has defined the Cell Cycle Kinetics of Myeloid Leukemia cells in vivo in myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia by studying cellular proliferation in patients. This led researchers to believe that low blood counts were not a result of bone marrow failure, but instead a hyper-proliferative state in the marrow tissue, leading to their hematopoietic cells to die of apoptosis. Raza has also developed a tissue bank of cancer patients that contains several thousand specimens of patient tissue for her research, which she uses to identify treatment programs for various patients through genetic testing. This also resulted in a research partnership with the company Cancer Genetics in 2014, "to identify more accurate diagnostic and prognostic markers for myelodysplastic syndromes , as well as novel therapies to target this class of bone marrow cancers." Her research into acute myeloid leukemia has shown that a mutation in their bone-building osteoclast cells of patients suffering from the disease could be one of the causes of the cancer they develop. Raza has also used genomic technology to further research the pathology of myelodysplastic syndrome, as well as RNA Sequence and global methylation studies, and was a part of US President Barack Obama's "cancer moonshot" program, reporting to Vice-President Joe Biden.
Writing
Raza's 2009 book Ghalib: Epistemologies of Elegance co-written with Sara Suleri Goodyear, analyzed the work of the Urdu poet Ghalib, and included translations of Ghalib's Ghazals that the co-authors performed themselves. Raza also facilitates Pakistani artists during visits to New York City. She also co-wrote Myelodysplastic Syndromes & Secondary Acute Myelogenous Leukemia: Directions for the New Millennium in 2001. Raza's work has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Blood, Cancer, Cancer Research, British Journal of Haematology, Leukemia, and Leukemia Research. She has also contributed to newspapers as an author, and has provided talks to organizations like TEDx New York. The hypothesis that early detection and prevention of cancer may be the most humane solution for the cancer problem was summarized in Raza’s essay in The Wall Street Journal, titled: "Cancer is still beating us. We need a new start".
Critical Acclaim
Raza's 2019 book The First Cell has received critical acclaim from many sources:
Henry Marsh in the New York Times said, "Raza suggests the first cancer cell that gives rise to a tumor is like a grain of sand that precipitates the collapse of a sand pile. Research, she says, should concentrate on finding these early changes, before an actual tumor develops." The Times reported, "Her most ambitious project, though, is the MDS-AML Tissue Repository, in which tissue from every bone marrow biopsy she has taken over 35 years is banked. Founded in 1984, it’s the oldest repository of its kind created by a single physician and contains 60,000 samples from Raza’s patients, including, painfully, her husband’s." Barbara Kiser wrote in Nature: "Each year, the United States spends US$150 billion on treating cancer. Yet as oncologist Azra Raza notes in this incisive critique-cum-memoir, the treatments remain largely the same. Raza wants to see change: eliminating the first cancer cell rather than 'chasing after the last', which is doable with current technologies. Meanwhile, she braids often-harrowing stories of patients, including her own husband, with insights gleaned from laboratory and literature on this complex, often confounding array of diseases."
Personal life
Raza was married to the late Harvey David Preisler, Director of Rush Cancer Institute. They have one daughter, Sheherzad Raza Preisler, who also lives in New York.
Awards
Raza was a Hope Funds for Cancer Research honoree in 2012. She also received the Distinguished Services in the Field of Research and Clinical Medicine award from Dow Medical College in 2014. Raza is the namesake of the Dr. Azra Raza scholarship award at her secondary school alma mater, Islamabad Model College for Girls F-7/2.
