IAP International News No3 2008

Vol. 49 No 3 2008 Divisions Newsletters Index International News Bulletin Index	Contents: Executive Report of the 97th Annual Meeting of The United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Basic Principles and Practice of Molecular Pathology in Cancer Editor’s Report on the 97th Annual meeting of the USCAP Report from the Ukrainian Division Meetings
Executive Report of the 97th Annual Meeting of The United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology March 1-7, 2008 Denver, Colorado	This meeting was by all accounts a resounding success. Three-thousand three hundred and fifty-eight (3358) physician-pathologists were in attendance - the second highest in the history of USCAP. 620 of the registrants/attendees at the Denver meeting were from 61 countries outside of the US and Canada. There were 1044 residents/fellows at our meeting which is a reflection of the effective recruitment programme of the past 8 years. 2396 scientific abstracts were submitted for evaluation. This was the sixth year for the USCAP to have electronic submission of our scientific abstracts (in conjunction with Marathon, Inc). There was a 71.3 % acceptance rate for abstracts. Abstracts are accepted from anywhere in the world and we try to accommodate as many quality poster sessions as space allows. These scientific abstracts are now online searchable by topic, disease, word, technique, author, institution, etc on the USCAP website (www.uscap.org). Three years of abstracts are kept active on this site. Blue Bear outside the Convention Center. It is 40ft high and made of ‘4,000 interlocking triangles of moulded blue polymer concrete mounted on a steel framework.’ It was created by Lawrence Argent who was born in England, trained in sculpture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, and is now living in Denver where he is Professor of Art at the University of Denver. This art work is part of Denver’s public art Program whereby 1% of the cost of a building must be spent on art decorations. On Sunday the bear and everything else was covered by a layer of snow. The office of President Dr. Chris Crum served a distinguished and quite active term as President of the USCAP. Dr. Victor Reuter is now the President for 2008-09 and Dr. Richard Zarbo is President-Elect AWARDS Stowell-Orbison Awards 376 abstracts were submitted. 238 were accepted. Four co-equal awards made: Andrea N. Grin Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada Crystal P. Jenkins University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Lynette M. Sholl Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA Ron Yaar Emory University, Atlanta, GA Three Certificates of Merit were awarded: Hannah L. Gilmore Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA Rohit Mehra University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Juan M. Mosquera Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. Co-authors came from a number of other institutions - Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco, McGill University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Michigan. The ADASP/USCAP Autopsy Award winning abstract was: Karen M. Jones Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC The ADASP/USCAP Surgical Pathology Award was: Ruta Gupta Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA Above: Claude Cuvelier, (Belgium), Laurence de Laval (Belgium), winner of the Ben Castleman award, Jaime Prat (Spain) and Robin Young, Mass General (US) (Laurence de Laval once worked at the Mass General) Above: Some members of the Arab Division who attended their usual social dinner. (Numerous special interest groups of all sorts have social gatherings during the USCAP meeting. This would be one important aspect of the meeting that would be lost if people opt to view the meetings from their computers without actually attending the meeting.) Above: Rick Fraser, The F.K. Mostofi Distinguished Service Award Left: Ron Yaar, Crystal P. Jenkins, Lynette M. Sholl, Andrea N. Grin, Stowell-Orbison Awards Christine Janney, Cheryl Coffin, Hala Makhlouf, Elizabeth (beth) Brunt, Andrew Clouston, Speakers at the Liver specialty Conference The Nathan Kaufman Timely Topic Lecture was given by Dr. Frank McKeon, Professor of Cell Biology from Harvard. The title of his lecture was “p63 Through the Ages”. His lecture was elegant, timely, and very well received. The Maude Abbot Lecture was given by Dr. Chris Fletcher, Brigham & Women’s/Boston entitled: “The Future of Academic Anatomic Pathology: Challenges and Opportunities”. This was truly an outstanding presentation. The Distinguished Pathologists Award was presented this year to two individuals in recognition of their long-term, distinguished service in the development of the discipline of pathology and the USCAP. Drs. Nathan Kaufman and Bernard Wagner were recognized by the Academy membership for their major and extensive contributions to pathology over the years. Please see the USCAP Website (www.uscap.org) for their biosketches. Above: Ruta Gupta, The ADASP/USCAP Surgical Pathology award Above: Anirban Maitra, Ramzi Cotran Young investigator award Above: Jeremy Wallentine, J. Stephen Vogel award Bernard and Pat Wagner, Distinguished Pathologists Award Victor Reuter, President of USCAP for 2008-2009, and Brett Delahunt, President of the Australasian Division of IAP. Chris Crum President of USCAP with Frank McKeon the Timely topics lecturer. The President’s Award was presented this year to Dr. Jack Perry Strong. His dedication and work for the Academy and especially as long-standing Chair of the USCAP Finance Committee is way “above and beyond the call of duty”. He received a very lengthy and vibrant standing-ovation! (And deserved it!). Please see the USCAP Website of the 2008 Annual Meeting for details about this outstanding and dedicated individual who has contributed so much to pathology world-wide. Jack has now resigned from the Finance Committee and his replacement is Dr. Peter Banks. The F.K. Mostofi Distinguished Service Award went to Dr. Richard Fraser, Montreal for his important and extraordinary effort and success as President of the 2006 IAP Centennial Congress held in Montreal. The Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award was presented to Dr. Anirban Maitra, from Johns Hopkins. The Castleman Award (for the best published paper in the field of human pathology ) went to Dr. Laurence de Leval (Belgium) for her paper entitled: “The gene expression profile of nodal peripheral T-cell lymphoma demonstrates a molecular link between angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) and follicular helper T (Tfh) cells” in Blood 2007: 109: 4952-4963. Above: Chris Fletcher, Maude Abbott lecturer Above: Mike Wells retiring editor of Histopathology, Elizabeth Whelan, Blackwell publishing and Claude Cuvelier, Pres BDIAPBelow: Jack and Mihoko Strong, The President’s Awar Above: History of Pathology companion meeting. Almost a full lecture room. The F. Stephen Vogel Award (for the most outstanding paper published in an Academy journal by a pathologist-in-training ) went to Dr. Jeremy Wallentine (Univ. of Utah) for his paper entitled: “Comprehensive identification of proteins in Hodgkin lymphoma-derived Reed-Sternberg Cells by LM-MS/MS” in Laboratory Investigation: 2007 Nov; 87(11): 1113-1124, Epub 2007 Sep 17. Scientific Sessions The Long Course entitled “Tumors of the Kidney and Urinary Bladder” by Drs. Eble and Grignon, Indiana University was attended by 658 registrants. The syllabus consisted of 280 plus pages of notes, and included a CD packed full of hundreds of images. It will be published in Modern Pathology in 2009 Sixty half-day Short Courses were presented. An average of 81 pathologists attended each course. Virtually all of the Short Courses have CD’s, and many have “Virtual Slides”. Two all-day Special Courses were offered: A new one on “Basic Principles and Practice of Molecular Pathology in Cancer” was headed by Dr. Julia Bridge (Univ. Nebraska). It was “sold out” attracting a maximum room number of 326 registrants. This course has a CD in addition to the extensive syllabus. The ongoing Advanced Molecular Pathology course (headed by Dr. Frederic Barr, Univ. of Pennsylvania) attracted 288 registrants and included a CD in addition to the extensive syllabus. Twenty - Six Companion Societies presented their educational endeavors on Saturday night and Sunday. The total registrations (number of attendees times the number of Companion Societies) was 2296. This year all of the Companion Society handouts were on our USCAP Website at least 2-3 weeks before the meeting. The 17 evening Specialty Conferences, which are organ-based, were held from 7:30-9:30 pm, which is always a testimony to the continuing endurance of the meeting’s registrants. All of the evening Specialty Conferences are online on the Academy’s website. For the past five years the unknowns (i.e., clinical history and representative histologic images) are placed on our USCAP website several weeks before the annual meeting, and the answers, complete text, power point presentations, references, etc are placed on our website the morning after the Specialty Conference for all throughout the world to enjoy Above: History of Pathology companion meeting speakers, Konrad Muller Hermilink, Robin Cooke, Clive Taylor, Jan van den Tweel. Additional Activities of the Academy Perhaps the most important of these has been concentrated on the partnership of our two academy journals with the most outstanding medical and science publishing group in the world--Nature Publishing Group. Many of the top scientific breakthroughs of the 20th Century were first reported in the journal - Nature (it is the world’s foremost weekly scientific journal by impact factor). Nature Publishing Group (NPG) publishes over 36 high profile society-owned or affiliated journals and 7-8 of the top 20 in the world in impact factor. Both of our Academy’s journals now offer 2 pages of free color per published article, rapid advance online publication available 6 weeks after manuscript acceptance, increased international exposure, electronic table of content alerts delivered directly to your inbox highlighting new content each month, online submission of manuscripts and tracking, and reference cross-linking via CrossRef and MEDLINE. Powered by Naturejobs, the Career and Recruitment division of the journal Nature, Pathology jobs provides recruiters with unique vehicles to advertise. The Nature website is outstanding with free abstracts of all articles, integrated searches, online archives of all full-text articles from 2000 available through a personal or institutional subscription, and author index-which searches authors names across all available articles. This is a very powerful force in research and education for our members to utilize. In addition, the scientific abstracts from the annual USCAP meetings for the past three years are now online and searchable. (Please see our USCAP and the Nature websites). Another activity has been the educational endeavors by the USCAP this past year. 1.) The IAP Centennial Congress held in Montreal September 16-21, 2006. There were 2700 attendees from almost 100 countries. 2.) The establishment of the eAcademy (go to:www.uscap.org for further information). This online, distance-learning tool, will render CME credit for a minor charge. This is under the Direction of Dr. John Sinard (Yale). The APECS cases (anatomic pathology cases) will start this summer, 2008. 3.) The First American Board of Pathology-approved “Self Assessment Module” (SAM): Diagnostic Cytopathology 07. We now have multiple SAM offerings: see the left-hand side of our USCAP Website for a listing of our “four sets” of SAM offerings. . 4.) The development of the CME Portfolio for members. 5.) Continuing involvement in altruistic activities, including West and Sub-Saharan Africa. 6.) Continuing growth of the free USCAP “Knowledge Hub/Pathology Portal” 7.) Over 480 Virtual Slides are now up on the USCAP Website for free (e.g., IAP Centennial; Annual evening Specialty Conferences) 8.) The “Naturization” of Laboratory Investigation (watch for future developments of this type for Modern Pathology coming very soon!) 9.) The development of the Itinerary Planner (electronic planner) for the Annual Meeting 10.) Online Membership Renewal & Registration 11.) A Poster Creation Service and ability to demonstrate entire abstract online 12.) Pod casts of the IAP Centennial Keynote Addresses, and 2007 and 2008 Annual addresses. 13.) Online Evaluation of all of the Academy’s Courses 14.) And much more. Fred Silva, Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Vice President, USCAP. March 11, 2008. Back to Contents List
United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology 2008 Special Course Basic Principles and Practice of Molecular Pathology in Cancer	(This was the first time this course was presented at a USCAP meeting) Course Director: Julia A. Bridge M.D., FACMG Course Objectives: (1) To present an overview of the basic genetic principles of common oncologic molecular diagnostic testing. (2) To provide participants with a working knowledge of tests available in oncologic molecular pathology as well as their application and interpretation in screening, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of cancer. Summary: Accumulating discoveries of the biological mechanisms that control cell growth and differentiation, and developments in the clinical management of cancer, continue to expand the role of molecular technology in diagnostic surgical pathology. In this course, the basic principles of molecular pathology in cancer and their application to laboratory medicine will be emphasized in a format designed to be practical and straightforward. Specifically, this course is aimed at providing pathologists with a foundation in the practice of oncologic molecular pathology to include: nomenclature, commonly used techniques and their specimen requirements, assay selection and indications, diagnostic and prognostic utility, test turn-around-times, and quality assurance issues. Select cases may be presented to illustrate use in routine practice and serve as useful paradigms. Moreover, specific areas will be highlighted in which major advances can be expected and to which the basic principles learned can be applied. Molecular Pathology in Cancer (L to R) Stanley Hamilton. Adam Bagg, Mark Rubin, Jennifer Hunt, Arie Penny, Julia Bridge, Marc Ladanyi, Alan Gown Back to Contents List
Editor’s Report on the 97th Annual meeting of the USCAP	Some delegates arrived in Denver two days or more before the official starting day of the conference on Saturday, March 1st. Those who did this were able to imbibe the welcoming atmosphere of Denver, the mile high city. The sun was shining and the days were cool but not cold. A pleasant walk around the central business area gave one a view of the older buildings from the late 1800’s when Denver was developing as an important supply centre for the region. This was cemented by the coming of the railroad and the opening of Union Station in 1870. All around the station, architect designed warehouses 3 to 5 storeys sprang up to accommodate the goods that were distributed from the rail head. These are now being restored. Above: The Capitol building topped by a golden dome, fronts one side of the civic centre. On this little hill the one mile altitude of the city of Denver is measured. The obelisk is a memorial to fallen service personnel. In the street opposite Union Station 3-5 storey architect designed warehouses were built to distribute goods from the rail head. They are now being refurbished. Union Station built in 1870. The Amtrak train to the snow fields now leaves from this station. This building, opened in Oct 2006 is a new addition to the Art Museum. The museum is renowned for its outstanding collection of Native American art. The grid pattern of the roads in the CBD runs NW to SE. Union Station is on the NW and the Civic Centre is on the SE of the CBD. The Civic centre square is bordered by a number of stately buildings. The most important building is the Capitol which is built on a small ‘hill.’ The roof of the Capitol has a golden colour because it contains a component of gold from the now exhausted gold mines in the area. The one mile of altitude above sea level is measured from this hill. Hence the name – ‘the mile high’ city. On obelisk in front of the Capitol commemorates ‘the men and women of Colorado who have proudly served and sacrificed in our Nation’s armed forces.’ Statues in the square commemorate the Native Americans and the cowboys who were part of the history of early Denver. Buffalo Bill Cody - scout, buffalo hunter and one of the first super stars of entertainment with his travelling Wild West Shows. Below: Buffalo Bill’s grave. Above: Looking West to the Rockies from the 37th floor of the Hyatt Regency hotel. Plaque about the buildings around Union Station Below: Delegates hurrying to the Convention Center in the snow on Sunday morning after a snow storm. At the SE end of the square there are some new buildings that house the art gallery. Its most significant collection is of art by Native Americans. The snow covered foothills of the Rocky Mountains can be seen from the upper floors of the tourist Hotels. The tourist agents were offering an afternoon tour to this area where the main attraction was a visit to the Red Rocks sandstone natural amphitheatre. This is a sandstone rock formation that resembles the shape of an amphitheatre. The walls of the rock formation rise about 300 feet, and within the semicircular wall of rock there is a slope on which tiered seating has been built for 9,540 people. The acoustics from the stage are wonderful, and there is an active programme of musical and vocal concerts that take advantage of this setting. The red sandstone hills suggested the name Colorado (red hills) for the State. One of the nice things about an international conference is that you can meet colleagues from all over the world in the most unlikely places. On the Saturday afternoon bus tour to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains there were 4 pathologists from different continents in the 10 seater tour bus. Another feature of this particular tour was a visit to a museum dedicated to ‘Buffalo’ Bill Cody who, because of his travelling Wild West Show became probably the first American entertainer to achieve international fame. He is buried near the museum. A nice touch from the Denver municipal authorities was the banners attached to the light posts along the streets welcoming delegates to the USCAP conference. On Saturday night it got very cold and windy and there was a fairly heavy snow storm. Delegates rugged up against the cold, had to battle wind and snow to walk from their hotels to the Convention Centre. Once inside the centre it was warm, and the intellectual challenge of the meeting was as stimulating as ever. There have been some very noticeable changes in the organizational arrangements for the USCAP meeting in the short space of the last 3 meetings. On line registration has speeded up the activity at the Registration desk and there are virtually no queues any more. Tons weight of paper lecture notes used to be delivered on palettes every day and distributed by hand to participants at the individual lectures. Now all the abstracts are submitted electronically before the meeting and are disseminated to participants as CDs. Fred Silva and his staff can now have all the presentations and abstracts on the web site within a few days of the end of the conference. Above: Looking into the amphitheatre from the back row with Denver in the distance. The lone guitarist on the stage could just be heard. Above: Half way down, and the guitarist could be heard easily. Previously the Augusta staff would spend weeks after the conference packing and mailing 35 mm photographs and paper ‘handouts’ to participants. Now everyone can access this material via the website. The speakers’ preparation room used to be a crowded room in which there was a hive of activity. Speakers brought their 35 mm slides in a transport container to the meeting and then loaded them into multiple carousels in the speakers’ room. They then ran them through a viewer to check that they were in order and the right side up. The attendants then marked each carousel with the speaker’s name, session, time and place of the session and then kept them stacked in the room until it was time to take the stacks of carousels to the session. An attendant stayed at the meeting all the time to make sure the appropriate carousels were loaded onto the projector, that the slides progressed smoothly, and to fix any problems. At the end of each session the attendant returned the carousels to the speakers’ room and the speaker then unloaded the slides into their own carriers for transport home. Now the speakers’ room has a small number of computer stations where speakers insert their USB memory sticks or CDs and copy their lectures to the computer which stores them in the session at which they are presenting. There is a small staff of IT (information technology) people who help speakers to transfer their power point lectures to the system and then supervise all the sessions from this central point. If there is a problem in a session, an IT person can be sent to the lecture room to deal with it. Rear view of the Red Rocks sandstone natural amphitheatre in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Colorado means ‘red rock’ and the state takes its name from this geological feature. Pathologists from 4 continents who met accidentally on the bus tour to the hills - Venancio Alves, (Brazil), Detlef Rothacker, (Germany), Charles Gilbert (USA), Robin Cooke, (Australia). Registration area. Bill Gardner and Alan Taylor. As a result of on-line registration this area is not as crowded as it used to be. Speakers room in the era of power point presentations. Just a few computer terminals and a small staff of IT people rather than a milling throng loading 35mm kodachromes into carousels and testing them in manual viewers. From the speaker’s point of view they now attend the session and all the speakers names are listed against the titles of their talk. They just double click on their name and the power point images appear on the screen. It is very easy to rearrange the order of the speakers if this becomes necessary. Depending on the wishes of the speaker, the power point lectures can be either deleted, or left on the server for transfer to the electronic record system. All of this wonderful wizardry leads one to speculate whether attendances at meetings in the near future will start to fall. It is possible to have the lectures delivered to home and office computers anywhere in the world. This overcomes the cost of travel and accommodation. These costs are escalating rapidly. It would be a great pity if this happens, because it would deprive us all of the interpersonal contacts that are such an important component of any meetings, whether they are small or large. The undoubted stimulation that participants get from this personal contact would be lost, as would the opportunities, both pre-arranged and accidental, for exchange of ideas, so vital for the scientific progress of our discipline. Robin Cooke, Editor Back to Contents List
Report from the Ukrainian Division	The Ukrainian Division had a highly successful Conference in Kiev on May 17 and 18, 2007. The theme of the conference was “New trends and Advances in Oncopathology” The Conference was held under the auspices of the Ukrainian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Ukrainian Association of Pathologists. Alina Romanenko, the President of the IAP Ukrainian Division, Konstantin Galakhin, President of the Ukrainian Association of Pathologists and Tamara Zadorojnaya, the vice-President of the Ukrainian Association of Pathologists were coordinators of the meeting. Eight foreign invited speakers gave lectures and slide-seminars. Francis Jaubert (France), George Kontogeorgos (Greece), Bharat Nathwani (USA), Samir S. Amr (Saudi Arabia), Christer Busch (Sweden), Shoji Fukushima (Japan), Alla M. Kovrigina (Russia), Nikita A. Savelov (Russia.) Lectures were also given by speakers from different regions of the Ukraine. The topics included sessions on immunohistochemistry and molecular biology. There were lectures on pre-neoplastic conditions, pituitary adenomas, new trends and advances in the diagnosis of various cancers - gastric, urinary bladder, prostate, thyroid and breast. Neoplastic conditions of lymphoid tissue were also discussed, and there was a slide seminar on soft tissue tumours. There were 207 registrants, 52 participants from Kiev, 153 -from other Ukrainian cities, and 2 participants from Russia. The proceedings of the conference were published in a special issue of the Ukrainian Journal of Pathology. The slide seminar on soft tissue tumours was recorded on DVD as a kind gift for delegates from Dr.Samir Amr (President of the IAP Arab Division). The social programme included a banquet, a visit to the Philharmonic Society for a classic violin concert, and a short boat trip along the Dniper River with a barbeque-party on the island. Office bearers of the International Academy of Pathology Ukrainian Division are: President, Alina Romanenko Secretary-Treasurer, Konstantin Galakhin. E-mail address: romanenkoa5@ hotmail.com Alina Romanenko, President Opening ceremony: George Kontageorgos (Greece), Alexander Vozianov (President, Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev), Christer Busch (Sweden), Francis Jaubert (France), Alina Romanenko (President of IAP Ukrainian Division) and Bharat Nathwani (USA), . Invited speakers and some Ukrainian pathologists- Samir Amr (Saudi Arabia), Bharat Nathwani (USA), Alina Romanenko (Ukraine), Francis Jaubert (France), George Kontogeorgos (Greece), Olga Reshetnikova (Ukraine), Tamara Zadorojnaya (Ukraine), Christer and Eva Busch (Sweden), Shoji Fukushima (Japan). Lunch time during the IAP Conference in Kiev Back to Contents List
Meetings	British Division of the International Academy of Pathology Meetings Secretary: Dr B Warren Fax: +44 (0) 117 907 7941 Email: bdiap@blueyonder.co.uk http://www.bdiap.org Xxviith International Congress Athens, Greece 12 - 17 October 2008 www.era.gr info@era.gr http://www.cme.hms.harvard.edu/courses/currentconcepts Back to Contents List