Tejo Niharika Musunuru, MD
Department of General Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Volunteer Faculty, Hematology, UT Health, Houston, TX
Associate Professor (Secondary appointment), Leukemia, The Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Associate Professor (Primary Appointment), General Oncology, The Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Faculty Current/Adjacent, Hematology/Oncology, UT Health, Houston, TX
Adjunct Associate Professor, Hematology-Oncology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
Associate Professor, General Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Associate Professor, Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2010 | Katuri Medical College, Andhra Pradesh, IN, Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, MBBS |
Postgraduate Training
| 2016-2019 | Clinical Fellowship, Hematology and Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas |
| 2013-2016 | Clinical Residency, Internal Medicine, St. Luke’s Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri |
Licenses & Certifications
| 2022 | DEA |
| 2019 | American Board of Internal medicine - Hematology |
| 2019 | American Board of Internal Medicine - Medical Oncology |
| 2017 | Texas Medical License |
| 2016 | American Board of Internal Medicine |
| 2013 | Missouri In-training Permit |
| 2010 | Indian Medical Council |
Experience & Service
Faculty Academic Appointments
Assistant Professor (Secondary appointment), Leukemia, The Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2022 - 2025
Assistant Professor, General Oncology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, 2019 - 2025
Assistant Professor, General Oncology, The Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2019 - 2025
Administrative Appointments/Responsibilities
Associate Program Director, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, 2025 - 2025
Program Director, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, TX, 2024 - 2025
Nocturnal Operations Medical Director, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2023 - Present
Associate Program Director, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, Texas, 2023 - 2024
Associate Medical Director, Nocturnal Program, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2022 - 2023
Other Professional Positions
Compulsory Rotatory Internship, Katuri Medical College, Andhra Pradesh, 2009 - 2010
Extramural Institutional Committee Activities
Member, Acute and Critical Care Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2023 - Present
Member, Anticoagulation Stewardship Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2023 - Present
Representative for UTMB/MDACC, UT CoPHIII Cancer Survivorship Workgroup, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2023 - Present
Physician lead, Nocturnal Program Quality and Safety Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2022 - Present
Member, HAL Clinical Practice Review Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - Present
Reviewer, Scientific Review Committee - 1, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2020 - Present
Medical Oncology lead, Quality Improvement and Safety Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2020 - 2025
Member, Adverse Drug Reaction Committee, The University of Texas Medical Branch, 2020 - 2025
Member, Blood Transfusion Committee, The University of Texas Medical Branch, 2020 - 2025
General Oncology lead, Junior Faculty Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2020 - 2025
Member, Hematology/Medical Oncology Fellowship Clinical Competency Committee, The University of Texas Medical Branch, 2020 - 2025
Physician lead, Beacon Protocol Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2020 - 2025
Honors & Awards
| 2025 - Present | Outstanding teaching faculty Award 2025, The University of Texas Medical Branch |
| 2022 | Honorary Onco-Hospitalist, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2022 | Take-a-Bow Nocturnal program recognition, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2021 | Best Teaching Faculty Award 2021, The University of Texas Medical Branch |
| 2020 | Best Teaching Faculty Award 2020, The University of Texas Medical Branch |
| 2016 | Resident of the Year Award, St. Luke’s Hospital |
| 2015 | Winner of the ACP 2015 Missouri Chapter Poster Competition, ACP |
| 2014 | Winner of the ACP 2014 Missouri Chapter Poster Competition, ACP |
| 2014 | Winner of the Best Abstract Award, St. Luke’s Hospital |
| 2010 | Gold medalist for being the Topper in the Medical School, Katuri Medical College |
| 2010 | Best Outgoing Medical Student for the year 2010, Katuri Medical College |
| 2009 | Medal for Academic Excellence in all the years of Medical School, Katuri Medical School |
Professional Memberships
Selected Presentations & Talks
Local Presentations
- 2025. Hypercoagulability. Invited. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2025. Anemia for the heme/onc fellows. Invited. Galveston, TX, US.
- 2025. Lymphomas. Invited. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2025. The Rarity of Central Nervous System Involvement in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Case Discussion. Poster. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2025. Pembrolizumab-Induced Seronegative Myasthenia Gravis: A Case Report. Poster. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2025. A Rare Presentation of Newly Diagnosed Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm Lacking Cutaneous Involvement. Poster. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Lymphomas for the hematology/oncology fellows. UTMB hematology/oncology fellows conference. Galveston, TX, US.
- 2024. Acute leukemias for the hematology/oncology fellows. UTMB hematology/oncology fellows conference. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2023. M&M conference. Internal Medicine Grand Rounds. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2023. Acute leukemias. Invited. UTMB hematology/oncology fellows conference. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2022. Lymphoma- Beyond the basic. Invited. UTMB hematology/oncology fellows conference. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2022. Clinico-Pathologic Case. Internal Medicine Grand Rounds. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2021. Extension of anticoagulation in patients with high-risk VTE. Internal Medicine residents noon conference. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2021. Basics of Lymphoma. Invited. UTMB hematology/oncology fellows conference. Galveston, Texas, US.
- 2018. Hematologic implications and stem cell transplant in Short Telomere syndrome. Conference. Heme City-wide. Houston, TX, US.
- 2009. Eye manifestations of HIV. Institutional grand rounds, IN.
Regional Presentations
- 2025. Iron metabolism. Invited. Internal Medicine Lecture Series. Galveston, TX, US.
- 2025. Anemia for the Internist- A walk with a hematologist. Invited. UTMB Annual Internal medicine Alumni Conference. Galveston, TX, US.
- 2023. Updates in MDS. Conference. BTF 2023's Updates in Hematology and Oncology. Houston, TX, US.
- 2023. Hypercoagulability. Conference. Annual CMC Conference. Lake Conroe, TX, US.
- 2022. Hypercoagulability in Diabetes. Invited. UTMB Annual Internal Medicine Alumni Conference. Galveston, TX, US.
- 2017. Thrombophylaxis in Catheter Associated DVT. Conference. HTRS. Scottsdale, AZ, US.
- 2017. Hypercoagulability in DKA. Conference. Heme Citywide, US.
- 2017. HHV-6 related Lymphomas. Conference. Heme Citywide, US.
- 2016. CNS Lymphoma. Conference. Heme citywide, US.
- 2015. Utilization of Hospice Care: An eye opener for medical staff. Conference. St. Luke’s Hospital, US.
- 2015. Improving the use of hospice care: a transition from ‘harm’ to ‘harmony'. Conference. ACP, US.
- 2014. PNH and Eculizumab. Conference. St. Luke’s Hospital, US.
- 2014. Connecting the Dots: PNH, warts, melanoma, and eculizumab. Conference. ACP, US.
- 2013. Melanoma Meltdown. Conference. ACP, MO, US.
National Presentations
- 2025. A Case Series of Immunotherapy-Induced Stevens-Johnson Syndrome/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. Poster. Orlando, FL, US.
- 2024. Osteolytic Bone Lesions in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Literature Review and Case Report. New York, NY, US.
- 2024. The Rarity of Central Nervous System Involvement in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Case Discussion. Poster. New York, NY, US.
- 2024. A Case Report of Low-Dose Imatinib Maintaining Clinical Remission in FIP1L1-PDGFRA Chronic Eosinophilic Leukemia. Poster. New York, NY, US.
- 2024. An Atypical Case of Diffuse Bazex Syndrome in an African American Female. Poster. New York, NY, US.
- 2024. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura: A Genetic Predisposition to Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura. Poster. Galveston, TX, US.
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Hussain, M, Doan, C, Murga-Zamalloa, CA, Quesada, AE, Miranda, R, Peterson, JM, Ovechko, V, Bhargava, P, Perez-Silos, V, Zevallos-Morales, A, Musunuru, TN, Lyapichev, KA. Primary gastric T-cell lymphoma presenting with perforation. Journal of Hematopathology 18(1), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 39738732.
- Grippin AJ, Marconi C, Copling S, Li N, Braun C, Woody C, Young E, Gupta P, Wang M, Wu A, Jeong SD, Soni D, Weidert F, Xie C, Goldenberg E, Kim A, Zhao C, DeVries A, Castillo P, Lohray R, Rooney MK, Schrank BR, Wang Y, Ma Y, Chang E, Kouzy R, Dyson K, Jafarnia J, Nariman N, Gladish G, New J, Argueta A, Amaya D, Thomas N, Doty A, Chen J, Copling N, Alatrash G, Simon J, Davies AB, Dennis W, Liang R, Lewis J, Wei X, Rinsurongkawong W, Vaporciyan AA, Johns A, Musunuru TN, Lee J, Lee J, Sun R, Sharma P, Tran H, Zhang J, Gibbons DL, Wargo J, S Kim BY, Heymach JV, Mendez-Gomez HR, Jiang W, Sayour EJ, Lin SH. SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade. Nature 647(8089):488-497, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 41125896.
- Konopnicki, A, Masuda, K, Roy, M, Sidiq, S, Bergman, J, Ramesh, M, Musunuru, TN. A Case Series of Immunotherapy-Induced Stevens-Johnson Syndrome/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN 23(35), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40154319.
- Peterson JM, Gonzalez A, Olano JP, Qiu S, Musunuru T, Lyapichev KA. Primary cardiac angiosarcoma presenting as restrictive cardiomyopathy. Lancet Oncol 25(8):e396, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39089314.
- Noh, S, Bertini, CD, Mira-Avendano, I, Kaous, M, Patel, B, Faiz, S, Shannon, VR, Balachandran, D, Bashoura, L, Adachi, R, Evans, S, Dickey, BF, Wu, CC, Shroff, G, Manzano, JM, Granwehr, BP, Holloway, S, Dickson, KB, Mohammed, AD, Muthu, M, Song, H, Aroe, A, Aloia, TA, Lee Andrews, II, Badami, KK, Beird, H, Brock, K, Cata, JP, Dabaja, BS, Draetta, G, French, KE, Godoy, M, Hutcheson, KA, Jaffray, D, John, TM, Lee, JJ, Litton, J, McEnery, KW, Musunuru, TN, Nates, JL, Palaskas, NL, Ravi, V, Scheet, PA, Shete, S, Subbiah, IM, Tawbi, H, Woodman, SE, Chung, C, Khawaja, F, Sheshadri, A. Interstitial Lung Abnormalities after Hospitalization for COVID-19 in Patients with Cancer. Cancer medicine 12(17):17753-17765, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37592894.
- Ovechko V, Bayes MG, Patel N, Musunuru T, Li D, Lyapichev KA. Auer "rhombuses": The unusual cytomorphology of acute promyelocytic leukemia. EJHaem 4(1):284-285, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36819166.
- Bhakta P, Hunzeker ZE, Garcia JD, Youssef A, Grant BJ, Alfattal R, Weaver D, Bhargava P, Rischall A, Musunuru T, Muthukumarana PV, Mallick J, Lyapichev KA. Pathological Fracture due to Primary Bone Lymphoma in a Patient with a History of Prostate Cancer: A case report and review of literature. Front Oncol 13:1100559, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37007154.
- Bhakta, P, Gudipally, S, Hunzeker, ZE, Hornak, JP, Musunuru, TN. ABCL-385 CD4 Counts and Viral Loads for Screening of HIV-Associated Lymphoma. Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia 22:S374-S375, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36164081.
- Iqbal F, Joya Sosa Y, Kramer-Smotherman DN, Posleman Monetto FE, Dong J, He J, Musunuru T, Schlette EJ, Lyapichev KA. Breast T-Lymphoblastic Lymphoma Presenting as a Single Mass in a Young Female with Family History of Breast Cancer. Int J Surg Pathol 30(7):760-768, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35188824.
- Grant BJ, Tang Z, Toruner GA, Mahdi A, Bigham L, Dong J, Musunuru T, Mallick J, Lyapichev KA. A Rare Case of Complex Variant Translocation of t(9;22;16)(q34;q11.2;q24) in a Newly Diagnosed Patient with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Leuk Res Rep 18:100351, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36176359.
- Benz C, Smith J, Mani R, Musunuru T, He J, Okereke I. Dysphagia Secondary to Intraluminal Choriocarcinoma of the Gastroesophageal Junction. Am J Gastroenterol 116(12):2326, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34283820.
- Long JP, Prakash R, Jr PE, Knafl M, Lionel AC, Nair R, Ahmed S, Strati P, Malpica Castillo LE, Al-Zaki A, Chien K, Chihara D, Westin J, Khawaja F, Nastoupil LJ, Mulanovich V, Futreal A, Woodman SE, Daver NG, Flowers CR, Neelapu S, Manzano J, Iyer SP, D3CODE team. Cytokine Storms in COVID-19, Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis, and CAR-T Therapy. JAMA Netw Open. PMID: 40193078.
Review Articles
- Hardy N, Vegivinti CTR, Mehta M, Thurnham J, Mebane A, Pederson JM, Tarchand R, Shivakumar J, Olaniran P, Gadodia R, Ganguly A, Kelagere Y, Nallabolu RR, Gaddam M, Keesari PR, Pulakurthi YS, Reddy R, Kallmes K, Musunuru TN. Mortality of COVID-19 in Patients with Hematological Malignancies versus Solid Tumors: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Clin Exp Med 23(6):1945-1959, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36795239.
Abstracts
- Roy M, Srivastava K, McHenry J, Sidiq S, Konopnicki A, Thota M, Brachtenbach T, Musunuru T. An Atypical Case of Diffuse Bazex Syndrome in an African American Female. e-Pub 2024.
- Konopnicki A, Roy M, Bergman J, Sidiq S, Ramesh M, Patel M, Musunuru T. A case report of low-dose imatinib maintaining clinical remission in FIP1L1-PDGFRA chronic eosinophilic leukemia.
- Thota V, Thota M, Etienne S, Patel M, Bhakta P, Sidiq S, Bergman J, Roy M, Musunuru T. Skin lesions: A road to diagnosing chronic myeloid leukemia.
- Sidiq S, Bergman J, Konopnicki A, Pham K, Srivastava A, Thota M, Roy M, Musunuru T. The rarity of central nervous system involvement in patients with acute myeloid leukemia: A case discussion.
- Roy M, Wells K, Sidiq, Konopnicki A, Janumpally S, Kalagara S, Brachtenbach T, Musunuru T. Osteolytic bone lesions in acute myeloid leukemia: A literature review and case report.
- Sidiq S, Bergman J, Roy M, Musunuru T. Type 3 Von Willebrand Disease: A Case Discussion of a Rare Bleeding Disorder. HTRS 2025 Scientific Symposium.
- Konopnicki A, Masuda K, Roy M, Sidiq S, Bergman J, Ramesh M, Musunuru T. A Case Series of Immunotherapy-Induced Stevens-Johnson Syndrome/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified August 13, 2026