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Arivarasan Karunamurthy, M.B.B.S, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Dermatology & Pathology

Dr. Karunamurthy is a member of the Division of Molecular Genetic Pathology and Dermatopathology.  Medical Director of UPMC Dermatopathology Laboratory.

Clinical Expertise

Dermatopathology

Molecular Genetic Pathology

Education & Training
MBBS - Madras Medical College, Chennai, India
Pathology Residency, 2009 – KEM hospital & Seth GS Medical College, Mumbai, India
Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency (Chief), 2014 - University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Molecular Genetic Pathology Fellowship, 2015 - University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Dermatopathology Fellowship, 2016 - University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Research Interests

Dr. Karunamurthy's research interests are focused on applying molecular and genomic tools in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of solid tumors especially in melanomas, skin cancers and cutaneous lymphomas. Dr. Karunamurthy serves as a pathology liaison collaborating with cutaneous oncologists and dermatologists in clinical trials, and leads Biospecimen core, MSCP Skin SPORE, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. He is also the principal investigator co- leading the NIH HubMap Skin Tissue Mapping Center at Pitt.  Dr. Karunamurthy's specific interests also include digital predictive immunoscoring, multimodal spatial imaging and transcriptomics, biomolecular cell atlas and 3D modeling.

Representative Publications
  1. Davar D, Morrison RM, Dzutsev AK, Karunamurthy A, et al. Neoadjuvant vidutolimod and nivolumab in high-risk resectable melanoma: A prospective phase II trial. Cancer Cell. 2024 Nov 11;42(11):1898-1918.e12. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.10.007. Epub 2024 Oct 31. PMID: 39486411; PMCID: PMC11560503.
  2. Neyaz A, Mohebnasab M, Hahn E, Rosenbaum J, da Gama Lobo L, Karunamurthy A, John I, Weiss KR, Schoedel K, Chiosea SI, Naous R. Low-grade myxoid spindle cell neoplasm with novel gene fusions involving MAP3K3 and MAP3K8 kinases: a report of two cases. Histopathology. 2024 Dec 9. doi: 10.1111/his.15388. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39653366.
  3. Sargen MR, Barnhill RL, Elder DE, Swetter SM, Prieto VG, Ko JS, Bahrami A, Gerami P, Karunamurthy A, Pappo AS, Schuchter LM, LeBoit PE, Yeh I, Kirkwood JM, Jen M, Dunkel IJ, Durham MM, Christison-Lagay ER, Austin MT, Aldrink JH, Mehrhoff C, Hawryluk EB, Chu EY, Busam KJ, Sondak V, Messina J, Puig S, Colebatch AJ, Coughlin CC, Berrebi KG, Laetsch TW, Mitchell SG, Seynnaeve B. Evaluation and Surgical Management of Pediatric Cutaneous Melanoma and Atypical Spitz and Non-Spitz Melanocytic Tumors (Melanocytomas): A Report From Children's Oncology Group. J Clin Oncol. 2024 Oct 4:JCO2401154. doi: 10.1200/JCO.24.01154. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39365959.
  4. Neyaz A, Furlan A, Karunamurthy A, John I. Spindle Cell Rhabdomyosarcoma of the Prostate With ZFP64::NCOA2 Fusion. Genes Chromosomes Cancer. 2024 Sep;63(9):e23274. doi: 10.1002/gcc.23274. PMID: 39324699.
  5. Hegazy S, Karunamurthy A, John I. Diffuse PRAME Expression in Transdifferentiated Melanomas. J Cutan Pathol. 2024 Dec 3. doi: 10.1111/cup.14769. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39625060.
  6. Isaacson AL, Berry RS, Ulici V, Armstrong SM, Bena J, John I, Karunamurthy A, Billings SD, Dermawan JK, Goldblum J, Kilpatrick SE, Rubin BP, Fritchie KJ. Myxofibrosarcoma with epithelioid morphology: A clinicopathological study of 44 cases with emphasis on differential diagnosis. Histopathology. 2024 Nov 28. doi: 10.1111/his.15373. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39610041.
  7. Fortman D, Karunamurthy A, Hartman D, Wang H, Seigh L, Abukhiran I, Najjar YG, Pantanowitz L, Zarour HM, Kirkwood JM, Davar D. Automated Quantitative CD8+ Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes and Tumor Mutation Burden as Independent Biomarkers in Melanoma Patients Receiving Front-Line Anti-PD-1 Immunotherapy. Oncologist. 2024 Jul 5;29(7):619-628. doi: 10.1093/oncolo/oyae054. PMID: 38655867; PMCID: PMC11224974.
  8. Cillo AR, Cardello C, Shan F, Karapetyan L, Kunning S, Sander C, Rush E, Karunamurthy A, Massa RC, Rohatgi A, Workman CJ, Kirkwood JM, Bruno TC, Vignali DAA. Blockade of LAG-3 and PD-1 leads to co-expression of cytotoxic and exhaustion gene modules in CD8+ T cells to promote antitumor immunity. Cell. 2024 Aug 8;187(16):4373-4388.e15. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.06.036. PMID: 39121849; PMCID: PMC11346583.
  9. Harper KK, Mutch V, Safran JP, Wu D, Aggarwal N, Maheshwari E, Weinstock AK, Gibson KF, Errera MH, Hou JZ, Karunamurthy A, Bunimovich YL. Leukemia cutis and anterior uveitis associated with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. JAAD Case Rep. 2024 Jul 22;52:21-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jdcr.2024.07.001. PMID: 39282522; PMCID: PMC11401047.
  10. Ghose S, Ju Y, McDonough E, Ho J, Karunamurthy A, Chadwick C, Cho S, Rose R, Corwin A, Surrette C, Martinez J, Williams E, Sood A, Al-Kofahi Y, Falo LD Jr, Börner K, Ginty F. 3D reconstruction of skin and spatial mapping of immune cell density, vascular distance and effects of sun exposure and aging. Commun Biol. 2023 Jul 19;6(1):718. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-04991-z. PMID: 37468758; PMCID: PMC10356782.
  11. Hegazy S, Moesch J, Guerrero A, Ho J, Karunamurthy A. Random Skin Biopsy Is a Useful Procedure in the Evaluation of Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis: A Case Report and Review of Literature. Am J Dermatopathol. 2022 Sep 27. doi: 10.1097/DAD.0000000000002301. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36197063.
  12. Kazlouskaya M, Karunamurthy A.  Deep Penetrating Nevus with Clear Cell Changes. J Cutan Pathol. 2022 Nov;49(11):930-933. doi: 10.1111/cup.14311. Epub 2022 Sep 7. PMID: 35982517.
  13. Mizes, A., Bunimovich, O., Vats, K., Orr, J., Karunamurthy, A., Ho, J., & Bunimovich, Y. L. Intractable pruritic dermatosis of the perineum in a female with highly unusual pathological features. JAAD Case Reports, 2022.
  14. Kazlouskaya V, Ho J, Jedrych J, Karunamurthy A. Spindle cell variant of epithelioid cell histiocytoma (spindle cell histiocytoma) with ALK gene fusions: Cases series and review of the literature. J Cutan Pathol. 2021 Jul;48(7):837-841. doi: 10.1111/cup.13923. Epub 2020 Dec 11. PMID: 33217002.
  15. Karapetyan L, Yang X, Wang H, Sander CA, Moyer A, Wilson M, Karunamurthy A, Kirkwood JM. Indoor tanning exposure in association with multiple primary melanoma. Cancer. 2020 Nov 10. PMID: 33170961
  16. Kazi R, Kazlouskaya V, Ho J, Karunamurthy A. Sarcoidosis with cutaneous perineural granulomas and neurological manifestations: A potential mimicker of leprosy. J Cutan Pathol. 2020 Feb 5. doi: 10.1111/cup.13660.
  17. Chang LW, Kazlouskaya V, Kazi R, Davar D, Ferris RL, Ho J, Karunamurthy A, Jedrych JJ, Bunimovich YL. Melanoma Ex Blue Nevus With GNA11 Mutation and BAP1 Loss: Case Report and Review of the Literature. Am J Dermatopathol. 2020 Apr 17. doi: 10.1097/DAD.0000000000001652.
  18. Jedrych JJ, Duraisamy S, Karunamurthy A. Aneurysmal Fibrous Histiocytomas with Recurrent Rearrangement of the PRKCD Gene and LAMTOR1-PRKCD Fusions. J Cutan Pathol. 2018 Dec;45(12):966-968.
  19. Davar D, Wang H, Chauvin J, Sun Z, Pagliano O, Fourcade J, Ka M, Rose A, Sander C, Borhani A, Karunamurthy A, Tarhini A, Tawbi H, Zhao Q, Moreno B, Ebbinghaus S, Ibrahim N, Kirkwood J, Zarour H. Phase Ib/II Study of Pembrolizumab and Pegylated-interferon alfa-2b (pegIFN) in Advanced Melanoma. J Clin Oncol. 2018 Oct 25:JCO1800632.
  20. Raychaudhuri S, Rahvar M, Jedrych J, Karunamurthy A, Kruglov O, Rafkal S, Kane K, Akilov O,. "Dual Positive CD4/CD8 Mycosis Fungoides a Tumour d'Emblée". American Journal of Dermatopathology, 2018 Nov;40(11):836-840.
  21. Roy S, Coldren C, Karunamurthy A, Kip NS, Klee EW, Lincoln SE, Leon A, Pullambhatla M, Temple-Smolkin RL, Voelkerding KV, Wang C, Carter AB. Standards and Guidelines for Validating Next-Generation Sequencing Bioinformatics Pipelines: A Joint Recommendation of the Association for Molecular Pathology and the College of American Pathologists. J Mol Diagn. 2018 Jan;20(1):4-27.
  22. Karunamurthy A, Panebianco F, Hsiao S, Vorhauer J, Nikiforova M, Chiosea SI, Nikiforov Y. Prevalence and phenotypic characteristics of EIF1AX mutations in thyroid nodules. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2016 Apr;23(4):295-301.
  23. Shrestha R, Karunamurthy A, Nikiforov Y, Caramori L. Multiple Mutations may Predict Aggressive Behavior of Papillary Thyroid Cancer - A Case Report.Thyroid. 2015 Dec;25(12):1375-8.
  24. Afkhami M*, Karunamurthy A*, Chiosea S, Seethala R, Nikiforova MN, Nikiforov YE Coyne C. Histopathologic and Clinical Features of Thyroid Tumors Positive for BRAF K601E Mutation. Thyroid. 2015 Dec 17. (* equally contributed).
  25. Karunamurthy A, Pantanowitz L, Lepe JG, Reyes-Múgica M.  Lethal Outcomes in Klippel Trenauny Weber Syndrome. Pediatr Dev Pathol. 2013 Sep-Oct;16 (5):337-42.