I treat benign and malignant tumors of the head and neck and perform microvascular surgery. I am committed to delivering compassionate and individualized oncologic care to my patients. I prioritize multidisciplinary care in our head and neck cancer patients including collaboration with our speech-language pathology team to try to optimize patient outcomes. I spent 2 years as the co-director for the university’s first head and neck multidisciplinary clinic. My academic interests include quality improvement projects for head and neck cancer patients along with difficult airway management.
Expertise
- Head and neck surgical oncology
- Microvascular surgery
Education
- Undergrad: Kalamazoo College
- Medical school: University of Iowa College of Medicine
- Residency: University of Iowa College of Medicine
- Fellowship: Medical University of South Carolina
Board Certifications
- American Board of Otolaryngology
Awards and Recognitions
- MPhysicians Peer Selected Clinical Excellence Award (2021, 2022)
- Mpls St Paul Magazine Top Doctors, Rising Stars Edition (2018-2020, 2022)
- Minnesota Monthly Top Doctors (2020-2023)
- University of Minnesota Otolaryngology Department Resident Teaching Award (2021)
Professional Associations
- American Head and Neck Society
- American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
- American College of Surgeons
Publications
- Holcomb AJ, Farrokhian N, Tolan C, Whiteford E, Ward C, Villwock M, Dimon E, Kakarala K, Shnayder Y, Sykes K, Lominska C, Gan G, Hanly E, Buchakjian M, Harding B, Dooley L, Shinn J, Wood CB, Rodhe S, Khaja S, Abt NB, Varvares M, Bur AM. Adjuvant radiotherapy mitigates impact of perineural invasion on oncologic outcomes in early-stage oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. A multi-institutional analysis of 557 patients. Oral Oncology. 2023 May; 142(106420).
- Farrokhian N, Holcomb AJ, Dimon E, Karadaghy O, Ward C, Whiteford E, Tolan C, Hanly EK, Buchakjian MR, Harding, B, Dooley L, Shinn J, Wood CB, Rohde S, Khaja S, Parikh A, Bulbul MG, Penn J, Goodwin S, Bur AM. Assessing prognostic value of quantitative neck dissection quality measures in patients with clinically node negative oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2022 Oct; 148(10): 947-955.
- Farrokhian N, Holcomb AJ, Dimon E, Karadaghy O, Ward C, Whiteford E, Tolan C, Hanly EK, Buchakjian MR, Harding, B, Dooley L, Shinn J, Wood CB, Rohde S, Khaja S, Parikh A, Bulbul MG, Penn J, Goodwin S, Bur AM. Development and validation of models predictive of occult nodal metastasis in early oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma: A multi-institutional machine learning analysis. JAMA Network Open. 2022 Apr; 5(4):e227226.
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?sort=date&term=Khaja+SF&cauthor_id=36856153