Stefan O. Ciurea
•Professor of Clinical Medicine, Clinical X Series, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of California Irvine
•Director, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Program, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of California Irvine
Biography
Stefan O. Ciurea, M.D., is Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Program in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine at University of California, Irvine. He also serves as Medical Director of the Cellular Therapy Lab. Ciurea received his M.D. degree from "Gr. T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmaceuticals in Iasi, Romania, and completed clinical fellowships in Hematology-Oncology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and in Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Ciurea's research focuses on haploidentical stem cell transplantation and cellular immunotherapy for hematologic malignancies. He has served as principal investigator on multiple clinical trials investigating novel approaches to prevent disease relapse after transplantation, including landmark studies of ex vivo expanded natural killer cells and treatment of patients with donor-specific antibodies. His work has resulted in over 228 peer-reviewed publications and numerous invited presentations at national and international conferences. He has organized and chaired the annual Symposium on Haploidentical Transplantation (HAPLO) 2013-2018. Ciurea served as editor for the textbook "Haploidentical Transplantation: Concepts & Clinical Application" published by Springer and coauthored book chapters in Hoffman's textbook Hematology Basic Principles and Practice 7th and 8th Edition.
Ciurea is a member of the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network Steering Committee and serves on the American Society of Transplant and Cellular Therapy Committee on International Affairs. He is an editorial board member of Transplant and Cellular Therapy Journal and has been recognized with multiple awards including the Clinical Innovator Award from MD Anderson Cancer Center and Physician of Excellence by the Orange Coast Medical Association in 2026-2027. In 2022 he was named Honorary Citizen of Buzau, Romania, the city he was born in.
Return to topEducation
- Diploma of Baccalaureate in Mathematics-Physics, B.P. Hasdeu High School, Buzau, Romania, 1990
- M.D. in Medicine, Gr. T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmaceuticals, Iasi, Romania, 1996
Distinctions
- Honorary Citizen, Buzau, Romania, 2022
- Researcher of the Month, Medical Oncology Association of Southern California, 2023
- Clinical Innovator Award, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2015
- Outstanding Accrual to Clinical Trials Award, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2005
- Resident of the Year Award, Harrisburg Hospital, Harrisburg, PA, 2001
- Chief Medical Resident, Harrisburg Hospital, Harrisburg, PA, 2002-2003
- Physician of Excellence , 2026
- Physician of Excellence, 2027
Areas of Expertise
- Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
- Haploidentical Donor Transplantation
- Natural Killer Cell Immunotherapy
- Graft-Versus-Host Disease Prevention
- Donor-Specific Anti-HLA Antibodies
- Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment
- CAR T-Cell Therapy
Recent Publications
- Kongtim P, Chumnumsiriwath P, Vittayawacharin P, Jeyakumar D, Lee BJ, Doh J, Griffin S, Van Etten R, Ciurea SO, “Budesonide, Added to PTCy-based GVHD Prophylaxis, for Prevention of Acute GI GVHD after Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation” (opens in new tab), American Journal of Hematology, vol. 100, pp. 383-392, 2025.
- Chumnumsiriwath P, Vittayawacharin P, Ramos-Perez J, Jeyakumar D, Lee BJ, Doh J, Griffin S, Nguyen M, Rama H, Tran MH, Kongtim P, Ciurea SO, “Narsoplimab for Refractory Transplantation-associated Thrombotic Microangiopathy (TA-TMA) in Adult Patients Receiving Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (AHSCT)” (opens in new tab), Bone Marrow Transplantation, vol. 60, pp. 1065-1069, 2025.
- Vittayawacharin P, Lee B, E'leimat G, Cao Y, Reid J, Gamayo A, Rezk S, Brem EA, Lee LX, Kongtim P, Ciurea SO, “Clinicopathological Prognostic Model for Survival in Adult Patients with Secondary Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis” (opens in new tab), European Journal of Haematology, vol. 114, no. 6, pp. 1032-1040, 2025.
- Catalan JC, Mohebpour A, Griffin SP, Carino E, Smith J, Chumnumsiriwath P, Lee BJ, Doh J, Jeyakumar D, Ramos-Perez J, Kongtim P, Ciurea SO, “Efficacy and Safety of Rapid Magnesium Sulfate Infusions in Ambulatory Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients on Tacrolimus”, Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, vol. 31, no. 2, Supplement, pp. S492, 2025.
- Chumnumsiriwath P, Vittayawacharin P, Jeyakumar D, Naqvi K, Lee BJ, Doh J, Griffin SP, Kuo J, Harris JP, Kongtim P, Ciurea SO, “Fludarabine-Melphalan with Total Body Irradiation or Thiotepa Conditioning Regimens for Adult Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Receiving Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation”, Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, vol. 31, no. 2, Supplement, pp. S185, 2025.
- Chumnumsiriwath P, Vittayawacharin P, Jeyakumar D, Pinter-Brown L, Brem E, Lee BJ, Doh J, Griffin SP, Kongtim P, Ciurea SO, “Lite-BEAM Extends Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Older or Unfit Patients with Lymphoma” (opens in new tab), Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, vol. 31, no. 2, Supplement, pp. S180-S1, 2025.
- Griffin SP, Lee BJ, Chumnumsiriwath P, Kim S, Doh J, Jeyakumar D, Ramos-Perez J, Kongtim P, Ciurea SO, “Early Initiation of Tacrolimus Prior to Post-Transplant Cyclophosphamide in Peripheral Blood Haploidentical Transplantation”, Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, vol. 31, no. 2, Supplement, pp. S544, 2025.
- Kongtim P, Chumnumsiriwath P, Vittayawacharin P, Lee BJ, Doh J, Griffin SP, Van Etten RA, Ciurea SO, “Results of a Prospective Observational Study Using Budesonide, Added to Ptcy-Based Gvhd Prophylaxis, for Prevention of Acute GI Gvhd after Allogeneic Transplantation and Comparison with CIBMTR Control”, Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, vol. 31, no. 2, Supplement, pp. S287, 2025.
- Malki MMA, Sobecks RM, Cutler CS, Reshef R, Pusic I, Bejanyan N, Patel SS, Gandhi AP, Kota V, Rajeh MN, Kongtim P, Shen L, Dwivedi N, Kothari AS, Ciurea SO, “CD33 Microchimerism Assessment By Alloheme Predicts Early Relapse in Patients with AML/MDS—Interim Results from the Acrobat Multicenter Study”, Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, vol. 31, no. 2, Supplement, pp. S6, 2025.
- Ciurea SO, Al Malki M, Sobecks R, Cutler C, Pusic I, Bejanyan N, Patel SS, Gandhi A, Kota V, Rajeh N, Kongtim P, Moulton A, Vaskova E, Gulbahce N, Fan S, Dwivedi N, Kothari A, Reshef R, “Ultrasensitive Chimerism Monitoring Enables Eraly Relapse Prediction in AML/MDS Patients:Interim Results from ACROBAT Multicenter Study”, 2025. Presented at EBMT Meeting 2025.
- Hogan W, Ciurea SO, Lee S, Bashey A, “Prospective Comparison of Post-Transplant Outcomes for Matched Unrelated (MUD), Mismatched Unrelated (MMUD), Mismatched Related (MMRD) and Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) Donors: Results from BMT CTN 1702 (NCT03904134)”, 2025. Presented at EBMT Meeting 2025.
- Wannaphut C., Chumnumsiriwath P., Ciurea S.O., Kongtim P., “Outcomes of fludarabine-melphalan versus fludarabine-busulfan reduced-intensity conditioning regimens for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with hematologic malignancies: A systematic review and meta-analysis” (opens in new tab), Cancer, vol. 131, 2025.
- Nguyen M.D., Ciurea S., Desai S., Kalebasty A.R., Tran M.-H., Gee C., Tadros M., Nguyen V.Q., Patel S., Selamet U., Hanna R., “Iptacopan in C5 blockade refractory atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome with associated Castleman’s disease: case report” (opens in new tab), BMC Nephrology, vol. 26, 2025.
- Lee S.J., Logan B., Horowitz M.M., Dehn J.G., Pidala J., Grunwald M.R., Westervelt P., Farhadfar N., Hogan W.J., Bashey A., Hayes-Lattin B., Hill L., Brunstein C., Arai S., Srour S.A., Symons H., Uberti J., Vasu S., Pusic I., Juckett M., et al., “Primary Results From Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network 1702: Clinical Transplant-Related Long-Term Outcomes of Alternative Donor Allogeneic Transplantation” (opens in new tab), Journal of Clinical Oncology, vol. 30, 2025.
- Kongtim P., Ciurea S.O., “When the first graft fails: a strategic approach to donor selection for second transplant” (opens in new tab), Haematologica, vol. 111, pp. 444-445, 2025.
- Lee BJ, Arter Z, Doh J, Griffin SP, Vittayawacharin P, Atallah S, Shieh KR, Tran MH, Jodele S, Kongtim P, Ciurea SO, “Eculizumab for Shiga-toxin-induced hemolytic uremic syndrome in adults with neurological involvement” (opens in new tab), Eur J Haematol, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 548-553, 2024.
- Vittayawacharin P, Kongtim P, Chu Y, June CH, Bollard CM, Ciurea SO, “Adoptive cellular therapy after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation” (opens in new tab), American Journal of Hematology, vol. 99, no. 5, pp. 910-921, 2024.
- Ciurea SO, Kongtim P, Srour S, Chen J, Soebbing D, Shpall EJ, Rezvani K, Nakkula R, Thakkar A, Troy EC, Cash AA, Behbehani G, Cao K, Schafer J, Champlin RE, Lee DA, “Results of a phase I trial with Haploidentical mb-IL21 ex vivo expanded NK cells for patients with multiply relapsed and refractory AML” (opens in new tab), American Journal of Hematology, vol. 99, no. 45, pp. 890-899, 2024.
Most Cited Publications
- Ciurea SO, Zhang MJ, Bacigalupo AA, Bashey A, Appelbaum FR, Aljitawi OS, Armand P, Antin JH, Chen J, Devine SM, Fowler DH, Luznik L, Nakamura R, O'Donnell PV, Perales MA, Pingali SR, Porter DL, Riches MR, Ringdén OT, Rocha V, et al., “Haploidentical transplant with posttransplant cyclophosphamide vs matched unrelated donor transplant for acute myeloid leukemia” (opens in new tab), Blood, vol. 126, no. 8, pp. 1033-40, 2015.
- Ciurea SO, Schafer JR, Bassett R, Denman CJ, Cao K, Willis D, Rondon G, Chen J, Soebbing D, Kaur I, Gulbis A, Ahmed S, Rezvani K, Shpall EJ, Lee DA, Champlin RE, “Phase 1 clinical trial using mbIL21 ex-vivo expanded donor-derived NK cells after haploidentical transplantation” (opens in new tab), Blood, vol. 130, no. 16, pp. 1857-1868, 2017.
- Ciurea SO, de Lima M, Cano P, Korbling M, Giralt S, Shpall EJ, Wang X, Thall PF, Champlin RE, Fernandez-Vina M, “High risk of graft failure in patients with anti-HLA antibodies undergoing haploidentical stem cell transplantation” (opens in new tab), Transplantation, vol. 88, no. 8, pp. 1019-24, 2009.
- Ciurea SO, Andersson BS, “Busulfan in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation” (opens in new tab), Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 523-36, 2009.
- Ciurea SO, Mulanovich V, Saliba RM, Bayraktar UD, Jiang Y, Bassett R, Wang SA, Konopleva M, Fernandez-Vina M, Montes N, Bosque D, Chen J, Rondon G, Alatrash G, Alousi A, Bashir Q, Korbling M, Qazilbash M, Parmar S, Shpall E, et al., “Improved early outcomes using a T-cell replete graft compared with T-cell depleted haploidentical hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation” (opens in new tab), Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, vol. 18, no. 12, pp. 1835-44, 2012.
- Ciurea SO, Cao K, Fernandez-Vina M, Kongtim P, Malki MA, Fuchs E, Luznik L, Huang XJ, Ciceri F, Locatelli F, Aversa F, Castagna L, Bacigalupo A, Martelli M, Blaise D, Handgretinger R, Roy DC, O'Donnell P, Bashey A, Lazarus HM, et al., “Correction: The European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) Consensus Guidelines for the Detection and Treatment of Donor-specific Anti-HLA Antibodies (DSA) in Haploidentical Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation” (opens in new tab), Bone Marrow Transplantation, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 784-784, 2019.
- Di Stasi A, Milton DR, Poon LM, Hamdi A, Rondon G, Chen J, Pingali SR, Konopleva M, Kongtim P, Alousi A, Qazilbash MH, Ahmed S, Bashir Q, Al-atrash G, Oran B, Hosing CM, Kebriaei P, Popat U, Shpall EJ, Lee DA, et al., “Similar transplantation outcomes for acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome patients with haploidentical versus 10/10 human leukocyte antigen-matched unrelated and related donors” (opens in new tab), Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, vol. 20, no. 12, pp. 1975-81, 2014.
- Ciurea SO, Thall PF, Wang X, Wang SA, Hu Y, Cano P, Aung F, Rondon G, Molldrem JJ, Korbling M, Shpall EJ, de Lima M, Champlin RE, Fernandez-Vina M, “Donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies and graft failure in matched unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation” (opens in new tab), Blood, vol. 118, no. 22, pp. 5957-64, 2011.
- Ciurea SO, Merchant D, Mahmud N, Ishii T, Zhao Y, Hu W, Bruno E, Barosi G, Xu M, Hoffman R, “Pivotal contributions of megakaryocytes to the biology of idiopathic myelofibrosis” (opens in new tab), Blood, vol. 110, no. 3, pp. 986-93, 2007.
- Ciurea SO, Thall PF, Milton DR, Barnes TH, Kongtim P, Carmazzi Y, López AA, Yap DY, Popat U, Rondon G, Lichtiger B, Aung F, Afshar-Kharghan V, Ma Q, Fernández-Viña M, Champlin RE, Cao K, “Complement-binding donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies and risk of primary graft failure in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation” (opens in new tab), Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, vol. 21, no. 8, pp. 1392-8, 2015.
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Last updated on 10/3/2026.