Steven Z. Pavletic

Steven Z. Pavletic (born 25 January 1956) is a Croatian-American physician and researcher in hematology and oncology known for his role in developing consensus guidelines for clinical trials in chronic Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

Academic and medical career

Pavletic (born Živko Pavletić) was born in Zagreb, Croatia, where he earned his M.D. from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine in 1979. He then completed a clinical fellowship in bone marrow transplantation in 1992 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington. He is best known for his research on chronic GVHD, the most common late effect in cancer survivors who underwent allogeneic stem cell transplantations as a form of treatment.

Pavletic's research also includes pioneering work on the use of peripheral blood cells in allogeneic stem cell transplantation as a form of cancer treatment, as opposed to the use of stem cells from the bone marrow. He is the chief editor of the first textbook on GVHD entitled “Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease: Interdisciplinary Management”, published in 2009. According to Scopus, Pavletic has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Six articles on a 2005 international consensus project for clinical trials in chronic GVHD were referenced more than 1600 times in peer-reviewed literature.

Awards

In October 2006 Pavletic received the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Director's Individual Merit Award for his achievements in developing national and international consensus guidelines for clinical trials in chronic GVHD,

U.S.–Croatia cancer research cooperation

Pavletic was recognized in May 2007 by the Croatian Society of Oncology for his efforts at initiating an NIH-European-Croatian expert consortium with the goal of developing strategies for the national cancer control program in Croatia.

The United States Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia, granted Pavletic a United States Government stipend to spend six weeks at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Croatia, in 2013, to assist in the establishment of a multidisciplinary center for the treatment of chronic GVHD resulting from allogeneic stem cell transplantations. In 2013 the Zagreb chronic GVHD team was awarded an international peer-reviewed grant through the Unity Through Knowledge Fund (UKF).

Other activities

Pavletic is president of Hrvatska ura (HURA), a Washington, D.C.–based initiative established in 2010 with the goal of building cultural, economic and scientific ties between the United States and Croatia by working with the Croatian American community. He also serves as vice president of the Association of Croatian American Professionals and is president of its Medicine and Health Sciences Section.