Costas G. Hadjipanayis, MD, PhD

Constantinos G. Hadjipanayis, MD, PhD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon-scientist who has devoted his entire career to the treatment of brain tumor patients. He completed his neurosurgical residency and graduate PhD training at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with additional neurosurgical oncology training at the University of California San Francisco.

Dr. Hadjipanayis is executive vice-chair for the University of Pittsburgh Neurological Surgery, director of the UPMC Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery (CIGNS) and serves as co-director of the UPMC Brain Tumor Center. Dr. Hadjipanayis also directs the Brain Tumor Nanotechnology Laboratory in the Hillman Cancer Center and has been the principal investigator of multiple clinical trials and university, private foundation, and NIH-funded grants focused on brain tumors.

He was recruited back to UPMC in October of 2022 from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City where he served as the chair of the department of neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Union Square/Beth Israel and the director of neurosurgical oncology for the Mount Sinai Health System. 

Dr. Hadjipanayis has focused much of his career on innovation, translational research, and intraoperative technology development. In 2011, he was the first to use 5-ALA (Gleolan) to perform fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) in the United States and helped lead the FDA approval of Gleolan for glioma surgery in June 2017. He has been involved in a number of clinical trials studying novel therapies of glioblastoma (GBM). Dr. Hadjipanayis and Jan Drappatz, MD, associate director of UPMC Neuro-Oncology, launched the first U.S. intraoperative photodynamic therapy (PDT) study at the UPMC Hillman Cancer in 2024, introducing the new 5-ALA agent Pentalafen. In 2025, Dr. Hadjipanayis will launch a personalized vaccine-based immunotherapy for patients with newly diagnosed GBM. A new multicenter pediatric neurosurgical oncology trial will also be launched in 2025 for the visualization and detection of pediatric brain tumors. This will be the first U.S. multicenter pediatric clinical trial focused on 5-ALA FGS.

Dr. Hadjipanayis has brought new intraoperative technologies to UPMC for the first time that include the use of a voice-controlled, robotic-assisted exoscope for FGS of malignant brain tumors. Dr. Hadjipanayis was the first to use this technology for resection of a brain tumor in 2023 at UPMC Presbyterian. He also reinstituted laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) for brain tumors at UPMC Presbyterian. In 2025, Dr. Hadjipanayis and his team will be initiating a new clinical trial utilizing low-frequency focused ultrasound (FUS) for treatment of brain metastases in combination with immunotherapy. 

Dr. Hadjipanayis and his lab at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center are actively studying the development and use of magnetic hyperthermia therapy (MHT) for treatment of GBM in combination with adjuvant therapies. His lab is also actively working on the preclinical development of PDT and sonodynamic therapy for gliomas, including diffuse midline glioma (DMG) tumors. His lab has established a new collaboration at the Blue Pearl Pet Hospital in Pittsburgh. This large veterinary hospital will permit the preclinical study of novel therapies for canines with spontaneous gliomas which share similar characteristics as human gliomas.

Dr. Hadjipanayis is the current chair of the AANS/CNS Tumor Section, leading the largest group of neurosurgical oncologists in the world. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons, Neurosurgical Society of America (NSA), and the Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS). He is quite active with the Neurosurgery Research Education Foundation (NREF) which funds important research of neurosurgery trainees and young faculty members. Dr. Hadjipanayis has been a tireless brain tumor advocate serving on the nonprofit boards of the Southeastern Brain Tumor Foundation (SBTF) and StacheStrong. 

Dr. Hadjipanayis is dedicated to the development of neurosurgeon-scientists both nationally and at the University of Pittsburgh. Through the SNS and NREF, Drs. Hadjipanayis and Linda Liau, MD, PhD, (UCLA) launched the Neurosurgeon-Scientist Training Program (NSTP). This new program provides select research funding to neurosurgery residents from across the country who have demonstrated productive research in a mentored setting. At the University of Pittsburgh, Drs. Hadjipanayis, Page B. Pennell, MD, (Department of Neurology), and Julia Kofler, MD, (Division of Neuropathology), established the Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Neuropathology Pittsburgh Research Education Program (N3-PREP) which is intended to help advance the academic research careers of residents and fellows in the neuroscience fields. A longitudinal track beginning in the PGY-1 year, the NIH NINDS UE5 Research Education program will increase the interest of the matriculating residents across participating departments, transform the culture, and ultimately increase a diverse pool of residents well-prepared to receive the most from the benefits of direct NIH funding.

A CAST-approved neurosurgical oncology fellowship was established by Dr. Hadjipanayis at UPMC in 2023. This fellowship is currently only offered to neurosurgical residents in training at UPMC during their PGY-7 year. 

Dr. Hadjipanayis' publications can be reviewed through the National Library of Medicine's publication database.