This course covers practical issues regarding common pancreatic tumors and related lesions that face pathologists in their daily practice. The course will emphasize the integration of clinical and radiological findings into the differential diagnosis. Triage of specimen procurement for cytologic evaluation as well as issues related to intra-operative consultations and final diagnosis of the surgical specimens will be discussed. Diagnostic as well as therapeutic implications of certain findings or pitfalls will be addressed. The course will include a series of clinical scenarios with the pertinent algorithms applied in obtaining and evaluating cytologic material up to the point of rendering the final diagnosis on the surgical specimen.

This course is designed for the general pathologists and pathologists in training as well as subspecialists in cytopathology and GI pathology who are interested in following proper steps in evaluating pancreatic lesions whether cytologically or histologically.

The participant will be provided with a set of digital images and the pertinent clinical history for each case prior to the course. There will be a discussion and interaction among participants and the course directors. At the course, the participants will be provided with a comprehensive syllabus. After the meeting registrants will be mailed a CD-ROM with representative images.

Upon completion of this course the participants would be able to: 1) Accurately diagnose pancreatic lesions cytologically and histologically based on objective and validated criteria; 2) Recognize the helpful clinical and radiological findings and integrate them to resolve the differential diagnosis; 3) Understand the implications of certain cytologic and histologic findings in the diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of pancreatic lesions. (New Course)