The course will be organized as a series of case presentations illustrating challenging situations in the diagnosis of non-neoplastic and neoplastic lung diseases that will provide a practical surgical pathology update. The value of ancillary studies in term of facilitating diagnosis, predicting the prognosis and response to therapy will be discussed as appropriate. We will provide practical tips for generation of surgical pathology reports easily understandable by pulmonologists and oncologists. The pre-registered participants will be asked to submit their impressions of the case to a website prior to course. These responses will be incorporated into case discussions. The following topics will be discussed: chronic interstitial pneumonias including recently described airway centered interstitial lung diseases, lymphoproliferative lesions of the lung including problematic issues such as pulmonary involvement by hyper IgG4 syndrome, under and over diagnosis of alveolar hemorrhage and vasculitis, bronchioloalveolar carcinoma and invasive adenocarcinoma with discussion about identification/significance of papillary and micropapillary subtypes, lung carcinoma staging problems, and atypical mesothelial proliferations. Upon completion of the course participants should be able to integrate histology, ancillary techniques and clinical information in the diagnosis of difficult cases in thoracic pathology.

Pre-registrants will receive a website address where they can view course material and submit their interpretations. A comprehensive syllabus will be distributed at the course and all participants will receive web access to PowerPoint material along with the text portion of the syllabus after the meeting.

This course may be used for CME credits or SAM credits.