Dr. Dhir is the Executive Vice Chairman and Medical Director of Anatomic Pathology Services at UPMC. He is also the Chief of Pathology at UPMC Shadyside, the Director of the Genitourinary Pathology Center of Excellence, and the Medical Director of the Pitt Biospecimen Core.
Clinical Expertise
Dr. Dhir is a practicing pathologist and currently serves as the Executive Vice Chairman and Medical Director of Anatomic Pathology Services at UPMC. He is a board certified pathologist with subspecialty fellowship training in Genitourinary pathology. He has served as the director of the GU center of excellence at the University of Pittsburgh for the past fifteen years.
Dr. Dhir's interests include the molecular changes in bladder, renal and prostate carcinogenesis. The Pittsburgh GU group has an ongoing research study evaluated RNA expression, SNP, micro-RNA and proteomic perturbations to get a global integrated view of disease onset and progression. Current research focuses on translation of some of the discoveries into validated, clinically relevant tests. There is also ongoing work on correlative work aimed at sub-cellular changes and their correlation with response to different treatment modalities and assessment of chemo-preventive approaches.
He has been involved in numerous clinical, basic and translational projects focused on GU diseases and has been a recipient of NIH/NCI grants in this area. His major focus of interest is the identification and validation of novel targets for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic use.
He has been the Medical Director of the Pitt Biospecimen Core of the University of Pittsburgh since 1997. He oversees the tissue and biological specimen collection at the 3 flagship hospitals of the University of Pittsburgh Health Systems. This Tissue Resource has developed into a large resource for basic and translational research at the University of Pittsburgh as well collaborative research with investigators outside the University of Pittsburgh. This facility is a designated core facility for the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.
Dr. Dhir is the Principal Investigator for the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) Tissue Source Sites grant to the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Dhir is the Principal Investigator for the subcontract to the University of Pittsburgh from Ohio State University for the Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN) grant. Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) Tissue Source Sites grant The University of Pittsburgh has been one the largest contributors to the TCGA effort having provided over 1000 cases spanning a variety of tumor types. The University of Pittsburgh was one of the lead sites for the caHUB project.
The Tissue Banking initiatives have received extensive funding from various initiatives including the Cancer Genome Atlas Project, caHUB, Lung, Melanoma and Head & Neck SPORES, the Gynecologic Disease Program, the Cooperative Prostate Cancer Tissue Resource, the Shared Pathology Informatics Network, the Early Disease Research Network and others.
Dr. Dhir has been one of the key physicians involved in developing and implementing an Institutional Honest Broker system, incorporating the key data aggregation agencies at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also involved in the Informatics related initiatives in the Tissue Banking space. He was the co-PI on the CaTissue Core adopter grant from the CaBIG. He has also played an important role in the development of organ specific databases and associated tools at the University of Pittsburgh.
He has published 10 book chapters, has over 180 peer reviewed publications and has over 75 published abstracts.
He was also one of the participants in the RAND report on Tissue Banking. He has also been an invited member of the Marble Arch group, an international consortium of Tissue Bankers.
NIH Research
View Dr. Dhir's publications on PubMed
- GU Pathology and Clinical and translational aspects of genitourinary neoplasms
- Biomarkers related to Genitourinary disease; with special interest in GU neoplasms
- Human tissue banking
- An artificial intelligence algorithm for prostate cancer diagnosis in whole slide images of core needle biopsies: a blinded clinical validation and deployment study. Pantanowitz L, Quiroga-Garza GM, Bien L, Heled R, Laifenfeld D, Linhart C, Sandbank J, Albrecht Shach A, Shalev V, Vecsler M, Michelow P, Hazelhurst S, Dhir R. Lancet Digit Health. 2020 Aug;2(8):e407-e416. doi: 10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30159-X.PMID: 33328045.
- Abnormal Expression of Rab27B in Prostatic Epithelial Cells of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Alters Intercellular Communication. Dai Y, Ai B, Liu Y, Pascal LE, Wang Z, Dhir R, Sun X, Jiang Y. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2020 Dec 4:105898. doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2020.105898.doi: . PMID: 33285290.
- Differential impact of paired patient-derived BPH and normal adjacent stromal cells on benign prostatic epithelial cell growth in 3D culture. Chen W, Pascal LE, Wang K, Dhir R, Sims AM, Campbell R, Gasper G, DeFranco DB, Yoshimura N, Wang Z. Prostate. 2020 Jul 13. PMID: 32659026.
- Accuracy and efficiency of an artificial intelligence tool when counting breast mitoses. Pantanowitz L, Hartman D, Qi Y, Cho EY, Suh B, Paeng K, Dhir R, Michelow P, Hazelhurst S, Song SY, Cho SY. Diagn Pathol. 2020 Jul 4. PMID: 32622359.
- Lessons learned from clinical trial queries on small biopsy collections: importance of rapid on-site evaluation. Voyten J, Holtzman MP, Pantanowitz L, Dhir R, Beasley HS, Cuda J, Monaco SE. J Am Soc Cytopathol. 2020 Sep-Oct;9(5):461-468. PMID: 32499137.
- Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes. ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium. Nature. 2020 Feb;578(7793):82-93. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-1969-6. Epub 2020 Feb 5. PMID: 32025007.
- Integrated Proteogenomic Characterization of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma. Clark DJ and the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium. Cell. 2020 Jan 9;180(1):207. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.12.026. PMID: 31923397.
- Multifocal Extraprostatic Extension of Prostate Cancer. Farchoukh L, Laframboise WA, Nelson JB, Bastacky S, Parwani AV, Dhir R. Am J Clin Pathol. 2019 Dec 11. pii: aqz193. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/aqz193. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 31825470.
- Ultrasonic-assisted extraction and digestion of proteins from solid biopsies followed by peptide sequential extraction hyphenated to MALDI-based profiling holds the promise of distinguishing renal oncocytoma from chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. Jorge S, Pereira K, López-Fernández H, LaFramboise W, Dhir R, Fernández-Lodeiro J, Lodeiro C, Santos HM, Capelo-Martínez JL. Talanta. 2020 Jan 1;206:120180. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2019.120180. Epub 2019 Jul 27. PMID: 31514886.
- The Immune Landscape of Cancer. Thorsson V, Gibbs DL, Brown SD, Wolf D, Bortone DS, Ou Yang TH, Porta-Pardo E, Gao GF, Plaisier CL, Eddy JA, Ziv E, Culhane AC, Paull EO, Sivakumar IKA, Gentles AJ, Malhotra R, Farshidfar F, Colaprico A, Parker JS, Mose LE, Vo NS, Liu J, Liu Y, Rader J, Dhankani V, Reynolds SM, Bowlby R, Califano A, Cherniack AD, Anastassiou D, Bedognetti D, Mokrab Y, Newman AM, Rao A, Chen K, Krasnitz A, Hu H, Malta TM, Noushmehr H, Pedamallu CS, Bullman S, Ojesina AI, Lamb A, Zhou W, Shen H, Choueiri TK, Weinstein JN, Guinney J, Saltz J, Holt RA, Rabkin CS; Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Lazar AJ, Serody JS, Demicco EG, Disis ML, Vincent BG, Shmulevich I. Immunity. 2019 Aug 20;51(2):411-412. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2019.08.004. PMID: 31433971.
- Conditional Deletion of Eaf1 Induces Murine Prostatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia in Mice. Pascal LE, Su F, Wang D, Ai J, Song Q, Wang Y, O'Malley KJ, Cross B, Rigatti LH, Green A, Dhir R, Wang Z. Neoplasia. 2019 Jun 20;21(8):752-764. PMID: 31229879.
- Development of a Robust Ultrasonic-Based Sample Treatment To Unravel the Proteome of OCT-Embedded Solid Tumor Biopsies. Jorge S, Capelo JL, LaFramboise W, Dhir R, Lodeiro C, Santos HM. J Proteome Res. 2019 Jul 5;18(7):2979-2986. PMID: 31173681.
- The Biospecimen Preanalytical Variables Program: A Multiassay Comparison of Effects of Delay to Fixation and Fixation Duration on Nucleic Acid Quality. Carithers LJ, Agarwal R, Guan P, Odeh H, Sachs MC, Engel KB, Greytak SR, Barcus M, Soria C, Lih CJ, Williams PM, Branton PA, Sobin L, Fombonne B, Bocklage T, Andry C, Duffy ER, Sica G, Dhir R, Jewell S, Roche N, Moore HM; National Cancer Institute Biospecimen Preanalytical Variables Research Program. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2019 Feb 20. PMID: 30785788.
- Integrative Molecular Characterization of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. Hmeljak J, Sanchez-Vega F, Hoadley KA, Shih J, Stewart C, Heiman D, Tarpey P, Danilova L, Drill E, Gibb EA, Bowlby R, Kanchi R, Osmanbeyoglu HU, Sekido Y, Takeshita J, Newton Y, Graim K, Gupta M, Gay CM, Diao L, Gibbs DL, Thorsson V, Iype L, Kantheti H, Severson DT, Ravegnini G, Desmeules P, Jungbluth AA, Travis WD, Dacic S, Chirieac LR, Galateau-Sallé F, Fujimoto J, Husain AN, Silveira HC, Rusch VW, Rintoul RC, Pass H, Kindler H, Zauderer MG, Kwiatkowski DJ, Bueno R, Tsao AS, Creaney J, Lichtenberg T, Leraas K, Bowen J; TCGA Research Network, Felau I, Zenklusen JC, Akbani R, Cherniack AD, Byers LA, Noble MS, Fletcher JA, Robertson AG, Shen R, Aburatani H, Robinson BW, Campbell P, Ladanyi M. Cancer Discov. 2018 Dec;8(12):1548-1565. PMID: 30322867. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-18-0804.
- The Cancer Genome Atlas Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Renal Cell Carcinoma. Ricketts CJ, De Cubas AA, Fan H, Smith CC, Lang M, Reznik E, Bowlby R, Gibb EA, Akbani R, Beroukhim R, Bottaro DP, Choueiri TK, Gibbs RA, Godwin AK, Haake S, Hakimi AA, Henske EP, Hsieh JJ, Ho TH, Kanchi RS, Krishnan B, Kwiatkowski DJ, Lui W, Merino MJ, Mills GB, Myers J, Nickerson ML, Reuter VE, Schmidt LS, Shelley CS, Shen H, Shuch B, Signoretti S, Srinivasan R, Tamboli P, Thomas G, Vincent BG, Vocke CD, Wheeler DA, Yang L, Kim WY, Robertson AG; Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Spellman PT, Rathmell WK, Linehan WM. Cell Rep. 2018 Jun 19;23(12):3698. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.06.032. PMID: 29925010.
- Clinical trial cytology: Use of on-site evaluation of small biopsy and FNA samples for clinical trials and biomarker research studies. Manzo JL, Cuda J, Pantanowitz L, Xing J, Yu J, Beasley HS, Dhir R, Monaco SE. Cancer Cytopathol. 2018 May 2. doi: 10.1002/cncy.22001. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 29719135.
- Oncogenic Signaling Pathways in The Cancer Genome Atlas. Sanchez-Vega F, Mina M, Armenia J, Chatila WK, Luna A, La KC, Dimitriadoy S, Liu DL, Kantheti HS, Saghafinia S, Chakravarty D, Daian F, Gao Q, Bailey MH, Liang WW, Foltz SM, Shmulevich I, Ding L, Heins Z, Ochoa A, Gross B, Gao J, Zhang H, Kundra R, Kandoth C, Bahceci I, Dervishi L, Dogrusoz U, Zhou W, Shen H, Laird PW, Way GP, Greene CS, Liang H, Xiao Y, Wang C, Iavarone A, Berger AH, Bivona TG, Lazar AJ, Hammer GD, Giordano T, Kwong LN, McArthur G, Huang C, Tward AD, Frederick MJ, McCormick F, Meyerson M; Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Van Allen EM, Cherniack AD, Ciriello G, Sander C, Schultz N. Cell. 2018 Apr 5;173(2):321-337.e10. doi: STRING.doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.03.035. PMID: NUMBER.PMID: 29625050.
- Cell-of-Origin Patterns Dominate the Molecular Classification of 10,000 Tumors from 33 Types of Cancer. Hoadley KA, Yau C, Hinoue T, Wolf DM, Lazar AJ, Drill E, Shen R, Taylor AM, Cherniack AD, Thorsson V, Akbani R, Bowlby R, Wong CK, Wiznerowicz M, Sanchez-Vega F, Robertson AG, Schneider BG, Lawrence MS, Noushmehr H, Malta TM; Cancer Genome Atlas Network, Stuart JM, Benz CC, Laird PW. Cell. 2018 Apr 5;173(2):291-304.e6. doi: STRING.doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.03.022. PMID: NUMBER.PMID: 29625048.
- Integrated Genomic Characterization of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Cancer Cell. 2017 Aug 14;32(2):185-203.e13. PMID: 28810144.
- Next-generation sequencing-based molecular characterization of primary urinary bladder adenocarcinoma. Roy S, Pradhan D, Ernst WL, Mercurio S, Najjar Y, Parikh R, Parwani AV, Pai RK, Dhir R, Nikiforova MN. Mod Pathol. 2017 May 26. doi: 10.1038/modpathol.2017.33. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 28548125.
- Integrated genomic and molecular characterization of cervical cancer. Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Nature. 2017 Mar 16;543(7645):378-384. doi: STRING.doi: 10.1038/nature21386. Epub 2017 Jan 23. PMID: 28112728.