Amir A. Rahnemai Azar, MD

About Dr. Rahnemai Azar

Amir A. Rahnemai Azar, M.D. is the head of the hepatopancreatobiliary and oncology surgery at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center’s Cancer Care Center, and one of a handful of surgeons in the United States to have completed fellowships in two of the most complex and demanding surgical specialties: multi-organ transplantation surgery and surgical oncology.

Prior to joining the medical staff at ARMC, Dr. Azar served as a Hepatopancreatobiliary and Complex General Oncology Surgery staff member at the University of Wisconsin Health University Hospital in Madison and Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. After earning his Doctor of Medicine degree in his native Iran, Dr. Azar completed his general surgery residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx Hospital. He then concluded an abdominal organ transplant fellowship at the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle. Subsequently, he completed a complex surgical oncology fellowship at the UW Health University Hospital in Madison, followed by advanced training in minimally invasive liver, pancreas and gastrointestinal oncology surgery in one of the world’s most prestigious health care institutes, Asan Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea.

Having extensive experience in minimally invasive surgery (both laparoscopic and robotic), Dr. Azar applies these advanced techniques whenever is appropriate based on the patients’ clinical status.

Since joining ARMC’s Cancer Care Center, Dr. Azar has collaborated with multidisciplinary teams helping ARMC’s surgical service to become one of a few centers in the Los Angeles area to serve the community in advanced surgical procedures such as laparoscopic liver resection, laparoscopic pancreas surgery, Spyglass Digital Catheter bile duct surgery (one of the first in the nation), combined endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery (CELS procedure), and trans-anal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS procedure).

Dr. Azar is a board-certified surgeon, a diplomate of the American Board of Surgery, and a fellow of the Society of Surgical Oncology. He is a member of surgical societies including Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, Society of Surgical Oncology, and American College of Surgeons. Dr. Azar currently holds Assistant Professor of HPB and Oncology surgery appointment at the California University of Science and Medicine in Colton, and actively participates in the education and training of the next generation of surgeons and medical doctors.

In addition to a very busy clinical practice, Dr. Azar is a medical researcher, having produced nearly 50 publications in surgical journals as well as several chapter entries in hepatopancreatobiliary and oncology surgery textbooks. His publications encompass complex liver resections for liver primary and metastatic tumors, pancreas cancer, gastric cancer, vascular reconstructions following difficult cancer surgeries, and organ transplantation. One of Dr. Azar’s main interest areas is the identification of cancer health disparity challenges and improving equity in health care access in the surrounding community.