When Nagla Abdel Karim, MD, speaks about her path to oncology, she begins not with her degrees or scientific achievements, but with a moment that changed the course of her life. As a young medical student in Cairo, Egypt, she watched her father suffer from liver cancer at a time when therapeutic options were scarce. The experience, she says, “made me strong… I couldn’t just sit there. I had to do something about it.”
That early loss galvanized Karim, and it revealed a gap in medicine she was determined to fill. She saw that in addition to more effective and less invasive treatments, there was a need for the kind of care that acknowledges the person behind the disease. That conviction has fueled a career spanning continents, countless hours of training, and decades of work to bring new therapeutic options to patients with lung cancer.
Today, Karim brings that purpose-driven philosophy to the GW Cancer Center as a thoracic oncologist, clinical researcher, educator, and advocate.
An Early Calling — and the Desire to Solve the “Unsolvable”
Even in the early 1990s, before molecular testing, immunotherapy, or targeted treatments, Karim was drawn to oncology. At the time, it was not considered an appealing specialty. Therapeutic options were limited; outcomes were often poor.
But Karim saw something different.
“People weren’t as excited about oncology then,” she recalls. “I saw the possibilities and the humanity, and how optimism stems from them. If we didn’t do the work, if we didn’t support patients, the field would not flourish. I wanted to change that.” She trained in internal medicine and medical oncology at Cairo University’s National Cancer Institute, immersing herself in lung cancer research early in her career. Under a mentor specializing in thoracic oncology, she joined pivotal trials testing then-novel chemotherapies — gemcitabine, taxanes (a class of antineoplastic drugs that stabilize microtubules, preventing cancer cell division), and early targeted agents that would later reshape the field.
Karim traveled to the World Lung Cancer Conference in Tokyo in 2000, where she first heard discussion of gefitinib, the preclinical compound that would become the first-generation EGFR inhibitor (a type of medication that blocks the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein, which is involved in cell growth and division). That moment broadened her vision. “I was very enthusiastic. I wanted to do more than participate in studies. I wanted to write protocols, create personalized therapies, and develop new treatment options. The space suddenly became much bigger, with so many opportunities.”
Crossing Continents to Build Better Treatment Protocols
Determined to deepen her training, Karim came to the United States in 2001 for a postdoctoral fellowship at MD Anderson before completing a second residency and fellowship, years of work she describes both as challenging and energizing. “I was a student for a very long time,” she laughs. But she saw it as essential: “I cannot help patients if I’m not well educated and well trained.”
Her perseverance paid off. Faculty roles at Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati gave her opportunities she had long sought: designing clinical trials and contributing to early-phase drug development. At the AACR–ASCO VAIL workshop, she wrote and completed two investigator-initiated phase I studies, both later presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
But it was her work with SWOG Cancer Research Network that reshaped her career. She became principal investigator and study chair for the first personalized-therapy clinical trial in small cell lung cancer. Despite launching during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study completed enrollment from 2020 to 2022 and proved that tailoring treatment is feasible. A follow-up study is now underway. For Karim, these milestones are not just scientific wins. They represent a pathway to hope: “New treatments won’t reach patients unless we do this work,” she says. “We have to bring therapies from the bench to the bedside.”
Beyond Medicine
For Karim, oncology is more than drugs, pathways, or protocols. It is fundamentally human. She believes that science and compassion must coexist. She loves explaining treatments, side effects, and complex decisions, but she also values the quieter moments, sitting with someone who is overwhelmed, worried, or grieving. She describes herself as both oncologist and patient advocate, a dual identity shaped by her father’s illness and her desire to ensure no one walks their cancer journey alone. Her goal is not only to treat cancer, but to help patients maintain quality of life, purpose, and connection.
“We are humans interacting with another human being. A machine cannot say, ‘It’s okay, we’re doing this together.’ Empathy matters.”
Why GW — and What Comes Next
When asked why she chose the GW Cancer Center, Karim points to the symmetry between Washington, DC and her hometown. Growing up in Cairo, she recalls the city as a central hub — where people traveled for answers and expertise. “DC feels similar,” she says. “GW is a center of attention, an old university with deep roots. I feel I can add a lot to GW, and GW will add a lot to me.”
Her goals at GW are clear:
- Advance drug development and build new therapeutic options for lung cancer.
- Stay deeply connected to patients in both clinic and hospital settings.
- Continue her SWOG work developing and chairing clinical trials.
- Share critical public health messages, especially those focused on prevention.
Another driving force behind her move to GW is her commitment to educating future oncologists. She hopes to pass on not only knowledge and scientific rigor, but also the “feelings and passion” behind oncology, the humanity that cannot be captured in textbooks. “Students are the future,” Karim says. “When we go, they will care for the next generation of patients.”
A Career That Has Come Full Circle
From the hospital room where she lost her father, to her early days as a young researcher in Cairo, to her leadership roles in U.S. clinical trials, Karim’s career reflects a promise she made to herself decades ago: to step into the hardest spaces in medicine and make them better.
“I can’t just be an oncologist,” she says. “I am also an advocate for my patients and their families. I am there with them and for them.”
Now at the GW Cancer Center, she begins a new chapter: one that blends science with compassion, innovation with advocacy, and personal loss with purposeful action, With her arrival, GW welcomes not only a thoracic oncologist, but a mentor, a healer, and a fierce believer in what is possible when medicine treats the whole person: body, heart, and spirit.
