REPORT OF THE 98th ANNUAL MEETING OF
THE UNITED STATES AND CANADIAN ACADEMY OF PATHOLOGY
March 7-13, 2009 - Boston, Massachusetts





  The 98th annual meeting of the USCAP was held in Boston, Massachusetts and was by all accounts a resounding success. 4262 total physician-pathologists were in attendance (this number include 147 Companion Only Registrants). Welcome Home.

The General Registration of the meeting was the highest in the history of USCAP attendance- over 4100 (two year's ago in San Diego being the highest until now-3550). These attendance figures continue to make the annual meeting of the Academy the largest gathering, by far, of physician-pathologists in the world. Indeed, for the past eight years we have regularly had 3000-3200 physician-pathologists or more in attendance. 928 of the registrants/attendees at the Boston meeting were from international countries outside of the US and Canada. The countries (and the number of international visitors from each country) included: United Kingdom (83), Spain (73), Italy (72), Japan (67), Brazil (55), Ireland (55), France (53), Germany (38), Australia (34), Mexico (34), Argentina (31), S. Korea (30), Turkey (27), Netherlands (26), Switzerland (24), Taiwan (22), Greece (20), Belgium (16), Chile (16), Israel (14), Portugal (11), and all the other countries 1-10 friends. Thus, in toto, 928 international visitors from fifty-nine countries outside of the USA and Canada were in attendance (22 % of our total registrants). Pathologists from all 50 states of the US and 8 Canadian provinces were in attendance.

Of the registrants, 2203 were Regular, Sustaining or Emeritus members and 1002 were Junior Members . There were 593 pathologists in practice who were not members and residents/fellows who were not members (yet). Thus including the Residents and other students, there were a total of 1220 residents/fellows at our meeting. Each of the last several years we have had a thousand plus residents/fellows/students attend our Annual meetings. The percentage of house staff attending the meeting who are members of the Academy are for the past eight years - 41% , 69%, 67%, 66%, 76%, 84%, 88%, 83%, respectively. This probably relates to the effective recruitment we have had of pathology house staff/fellows/pathologists-in-training in the last 9 years. In July 1999 we had 520 Junior Members; in the following ten years we recruited over 6000 additional Junior Members (many of which have now become Regular Members). Our present "steady state" of Junior Members is over 2000. Our total USCAP Membership is over 10,600 physician-pathologists.

Dr. Victor Reuter served a distinguished and quite active term as President of the USCAP. He turned over the gavel and the Presidency to Dr. Richard Zarbo as the new President of the Academy.

2762 scientific abstracts were submitted for evaluation; this was the largest increase in our history from last year's all time record. Over 365 additional abstracts were submitted over last years record total (and the 16+% the largest single year increase in our history) (all submitted electronically). The quality of the submitted abstracts remains very high. A record total of 1780 were accepted after "blind" peer review (64.5 % acceptance). The review is conducted by at least 4 individuals from the Academy (3 "experts" in the area and one from the Academy Education Committee). The percentage of acceptance is generally dependent upon the space available at the hotel (which is usually booked 5-6 years in advance of the meeting). 1530 abstracts were presented in the poster sessions (a record) and 280 as platform sessions. We try to accommodate as many quality poster sessions as space allows. Abstracts were submitted from throughout the world (from approximately 40 countries and over 400 academic medical centers and institutions). This was the seventh year for the USCAP to have electronic submission of our scientific abstracts (in conjunction with Marathon, Inc). These scientific abstracts are now online searchable by topic, disease, word, technique, author, institution, etc (www.uscap.org). The USCAP website: www.uscap.org consistently has the last three years of scientific abstracts (approximately 5000) which are now searchable by topic, disease, author, etc for the last 3 years.

As noted before, 1220 pathologists-in-training attended the various portions of the meeting. 58 plus% of submitted scientific abstracts had a first author who is a pathologist-in-training (compared to 38%, 43% , 53%, 58% the last four years). (this does not count the house staff/fellows that are second, third, etc authors). 444 Stowell-Orbison Abstracts were submitted by Junior pathologists. 250 (56.3%) were accepted for the Stowell-Orbison competition, and an additional 45 were accepted as regular abstracts (total 66.4 %). Once again, the "scores" for the accepted Stowell-Orbisons were actually higher than the scores for the "regular" abstracts accepted for presentation (i.e, Non-Stowell-Orbison). There were four co-equal Stowell-Orbison Awards presented and four Certificates of Merit.

The four co-equal recipients, in alphabetical order of first authors name,
of the Stowell-Orbison Awards are:
Discovery of Molecular Subtypes in Leiomyosarcoma through Integrative Molecular Profiling
AH Beck, CH Lee, DM Witten, S Zhou, K Montgomery, R Tibshirani, T Hastie, RB West, M Van de Rijn
Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA; Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Rb Is Hyperphosphorylated in Most Merkel Cell Carcinomas
EM Cham, TA Victor, R Orr, M Morgan, KW Lannert, SM Share, TC Pereira, WB Laskin, CD Sturgis
North Shore University Health System, Evanston, IL; Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL; CellNetix, Seattle, WA
Tumor Proteomic Profiling Predicts the Resistance of Breast Cancer to Chemotherapy
D Shen, J He, DU Cheung, KF Faull, JP Whitelegge, RE Saxton, HR Chang
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA; USC Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA
Stem Cell Marker Kit Is an Independent Prognostic Marker for Pancreatic Endocrine Tumors - A Novel Finding Derived from Analysis of Islet Cell Differentiation Markers
L Zhang, TC Smyrk, C Lohse, RV Lloyd
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN




The recipients of the Stowell-Orbison Certificates of Merit are:
Clusterin, a Follicular Dendritic Cell-Associated Apolipoprotein, Is Expressed in Normal Synoviocytes and in Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumors of Localized and Diffuse Types: Diagnostic and Histogenetic Implications
JM Boland, AL Folpe, JL Hornick, KL Grogg
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
BRD4-NUT Fusion Oncogene Analysis by RT-PCR in Sinonasal Undifferentiated Carcinoma and Other Aggressive Primary Sinonasal Malignancies: A Study of 15 Cases
JJ Garcia, K Nafa, DL Carlson, EL Barnes, RR Seethala, M Ladanyi
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, NY
Expression of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I Receptor in Normal Breast Tissue and Breast Cancer Risk: Results from the Nurses' Health Study
Y Wang, J Connolly, R Hu, H Baer, G Colditz, S Schnitt, L Collins, R Tamimi
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; Harvard School of Public Health, Boston; Harvard Medical School, Boston; Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis
MicroRNA Expression Profiling Distinguishes Conventional and Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinomas from Normal Renal Parenchyma
DL Zynger, WA LaFramboise, JM Krill-Burger, CM Sciulli, AM Hensler, AM Perepletchikov, LP Kiss, R Dhir, G Cai, AV Parwani, SI Bastacky
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA




The ADASP/USCAP Autopsy Award winning abstract was:
The Impact of Placental Examination in the Autopsy of the Structurally Normal Stillborn
X Wu, OM Faye-Petersen, JL Steinkampf, TJ Richardson, SD Reilly
UAB, Birmingham, AL




The ADASP/USCAP Surgical Pathology Award was:
MicroRNA Expression Profiling Distinguishes Conventional and Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinomas from Normal Renal Parenchyma
DL Zynger, WA LaFramboise, JM Krill-Burger, CM Sciulli, AM Hensler, AM Perepletchikov, LP Kiss, R Dhir, G Cai, AV Parwani, SI Bastacky
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA


1207 registrants attended the Long Course entitled "Breast Pathology: Controversial Topics and the Emerging Role of Adjunctive Molecular Studies" by Drs. Stuart Schnitt and Frances O'Malley. This is the most well-attended Long Course since we moved some Short Courses into Wednesday about 10 years ago, and the second highest in our 56 year history of Long Courses. Early perusals of the critique form show that this course was very well done and very well liked by the registrants. The syllabus was complete/"long" (280 plus pages in length) and this Long Course includes a CD packed full of over five hundred images. This Long Course will be published in the next year in Modern Pathology.(Last year's Long Course on GU Pathology: Renal and Urothelial Tumors" is in the April 09 issue of Modern Pathology).

Sixty half-day Short Courses were presented and very well attended (with a total registration of Short Courses taken being 4570 (one of the four highest in history; two year's ago was the record at 4923) -that is the number of courses attended times the number of attendees at these sessions; an overall average of about 76-80 pathologists/per Short Course offering). From 1999 to the present time, the Academy has had regularly over 4000 in total registration each year. Virtually all of our Short Courses have CD's and many have "Virtual Slides". Forty Short Courses this year had Self-Assessment Modules (SAM) available. Next year, virtually all 60 Short Courses (Wednesday through Friday) will have SAMs available.

Three Special Courses were offered: one on "Basic Molecular Pathology in Cancer" (headed by Dr. Julia Bridge, Univ. Nebraska), was "sold out" attracting virtually a maximum room number of 562 registrants on Monday. 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) on Tuesday attracted 269 registrants and included a CD in addition to the extensive syllabus (the third highest in history). A third new course entitled "Careers in Investigative Pathology" directed by Drs. Massimo Loda (Brigham & Women's/Dana Farber) and David Berman (Johns Hopkins). This course was totally filled with 121 attendees.

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 7231 by far and away the highest in our history by several thousand. For the past six years all of the Companion Societies and evening Specialty Conferences' handouts/syllabus have been placed on our website. (www.uscap.org) after the Annual meeting. This year was our fourth year for the Companions and the Specialties to go "paperless". All of the Companion Society handouts were on our USCAP Website at least two weeks before the meeting, and the Specialty Sessions had their unknowns (i.e., Clinical history and unknown slides) up one month before the Annual meeting, with the answers (i.e., text, powerpoints, references, answers, etc) up the morning after that evening Specialty Conference.

The Nathan Kaufman Timely Topic Lecture was given by Dr. Todd Golub (of the Broad Institute/Harvard and MIT) was entitled "Molecular Classification of Tumors". His lecture was elegant, timely, and very well received by the appreciative audience of over 2200 pathologists.

Dr. Michael Gimbrone, Chair of Pathology at Brigham & Women's/Boston gave the Maude Abbot Lecture entitled: "Vascular Endothelium in the Post-Genomic Era: New Insights into its Pathobiology". This elegant and wonderful lecture was also attended by over 2200 pathologists. His was truly an outstanding presentation.

The Distinguished Pathologists Award was presented this year to an individual in recognition of his long-term, distinguished service in the development of the discipline of pathology and the USCAP: Dr. Louis (Pepper) Dehner, recognized by the Academy membership for his major and extensive contributions to pathology over the years. Please see the USCAP Website (www.uscap.org) for his biosketch.

The President's Award was presented this year to Jo Ann Johnson, Educational Program Coordinator of the USCAP Augusta office. Her dedication and work for the Academy is way "above and beyond the call of duty". She 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 have contributed so much to pathology world-wide.

The F.K. Mostofi Distinguished Service Award went to Dr. Jeffrey Myers, University of Michigan for his important, multiple, extraordinary and "extraterrestrial" efforts to help the USCAP in the last 20 years. He probably set the record for being on the USCAP Education Committee for 13 years (first as a member, then Short Course Coordinator, then Chair)!

The Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award was presented to Dr. Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue, MD/PhD of Johns Hopkins for her work on the molecular genetics of GI cancers, with a focus on pancreatic and colorectal cancer.

The Benjamin Castleman Award for the most outstanding paper in the field of human pathology was awarded to Dr. Kirsten Mertz for her paper entitled "Estrogen-Dependent Signaling in a Molecularly Distinct Subclass of Aggressive Prostate Cancer" in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute 100(11):815-825, 2008. The Award was presented by Dr. David Louis, Chair of MGH/Boston.

The F. Stephen Vogel Award (for the most outstanding paper published in an Academy journal by a pathologist-in-training ) went to Dr. Samantha L. Butler for her paper entitled: "The Antigen for Hep Par 1 Antibody is the Urea Cycle Enzyme Carbamoyl Phosphate Synthetase 1" in Laboratory Investigation 88:78-88, 2008.

The 19 evening Specialty Conferences, which are organ-based, were held from 7:30-9:30 PM, which was 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 six 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, references, etc are placed on our website the next morning after the Specialty Conference for all throughout the world to enjoy. Two new courses this year included Breast (Chaired by Dr. Stuart Schnitt) and Head & Neck/Endocrine (Chaired by Dr. Mary Richardson).

Additional activities of the Academy have 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 40 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 3 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, Pathologyjobs provides recruiters with unique vehicles to advertise. Their 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 for the past three years are now online and searchable. (Please see our USCAP and the Nature websites).

Our Two Journals (Modern Pathology and Laboratory Investigation) are considered two of the top four or five general pathology diagnostic and investigative journals in the world (including by Impact Factor).

Other educational endeavors by the USCAP this past year include:
  1. The establishment of the eAcademy (go to:www.uscapeacademy.org for further information). This online long distance-learning tool, renders CME and/or SAM credit for a minor charge. This is under the Direction of Dr. John Sinard (Yale). The APECS cases (anatomic pathology cases) started in December, 2008 and there are presently over 20 interactive, dynamic cases of all types available.

  2. The First and Largest American Board of Pathology-approved "Self Assessment Modules" (SAM): Diagnostic Cytopathology 07. We now have multiple SAM offerings: see the left-hand side of our USCAP Website for a listing of our "five sets" of SAM offerings. According to the ABP the USCAP has more SAMS than any other society.

  3. The continuing development of the CME Portfolio for members.

  4. Continuing involvement in altruistic activities, including West and Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa.

  5. Continuing growth of the free USCAP "Knowledge Hub/Pathology Portal"

  6. Over 500 Virtual Slides are now up on the USCAP Website for free (e.g., IAP Centennial; Annual evening Specialty Conferences)

  7. The continued "Naturization"of Laboratory Investigation (watch for future developments of this type for Modern Pathology coming soon!)

  8. The development of the Itinerary Planner (electronic planner) for the Annual Meeting

  9. Online Membership Renewal and Registration

  10. A Poster Creation Service and ability to demonstrate entire abstract online

  11. Pod casts of the IAP Centennial KeyNote Addresses, and 2007-2009 Annual addresses.

  12. Online Evaluation of all of the Academy's Courses

  13. The Recruitment of a Director of Marketing and Development for the Academy (Mr. John Garrard)

  14. Many other upcoming opportunities for our members.

By action of Council, the USCAP instituted a Strategic Planning Initiative in 2003-2004 to look at the future of pathology and The Academy. Summer retreats (actually advances) directed by Dr. Jeffrey Myers have continued, and implementation of these educational goals and strategies have been implemented, and are continuing to be implemented. The Long Term Strategic Planning Initiatives continue.

For the last five years, the Academy rolled out a number of new initiatives for our Junior members including: Several programs for pathologists-in-training were instituted-- including the Fellowship Fair with 40-55 institutions to discuss hundreds of fellowships; the new evening Specialty Conference just for house staff/fellows; and the House Staff Hospitality Room where Academy and Pathology leaders from throughout North America were present to talk with the house staff.

The USCAP's annual summer pathology review course and update - Diagnostic Pathology, with its fourteen outstanding faculty was held in Hawaii in July 2008. It was Directed by Drs. Stuart Schnitt and Jennifer Hunt. (See www.uscap.org for complete schedule). Last year's course (08) came with a 1100 page handout and a 3800 image CD-ROM! This summer's 2009 course will be held again in July 11-17, 2009 in Niagra Falls, Canada (Sheraton on the Falls). The 2010 Meeting will be held July 10-16, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency at Lake Tahoe, NV.

This was the fourth year for the USCAP Winter (January) Course entitled "Diagnostic Cytopathology" under the initiation, leadership and direction of Dr. Celeste Powers (Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond). This 2 l/2 day weekend intense and advanced course was held at the SandPearl Resort, Clearwater Beach/Tampa, Florida. The handout and the extensive CD (with thousands of images) were very well received. There were over 90 individuals in attendance. We will be doing another winter Diagnostic Cytopathology course next year in January 2009.

The educational initiative of the USCAP is Practical Pathology Seminars, in its third year, under the direction of Dr. John Goldblum (Cleveland Clinic) . It will be held from April 30-May 3, 2009 in San Francisco at the Hyatt at Fisherman's Wharf and will have approximately 100 in attendance. Five short courses will be given on topics including: Gyn, GI, GU, Endocrine/Thyroid, and Hemepath by eleven outstanding faculty.

Next year's annual (99th Annual) USCAP meeting will be held in Washington DC from March 20-26, 2010 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. The Long Course entitled "Endocrine Pathology including the Thyroid" will be directed by Drs. Ricardo Lloyd and Yuri Nikiforov. As usual there will be an extensive handout/syllabus and a CD with a great many images.

There are several additions to our USCAP Committees: Four new members of the Education Committee (under the Direction of Dr. John Goldblum) are: Drs. Carol Reynolds (Mayo), Marie Robert (Yale), Volkan Adsay (Emory), Tarik Elsheikh (Ball State/Muncie, IN).

Dr. Greg Fuller (MD Anderson) , is by vote of the membership the new Vice-President of the Academy, and Dr. Stuart Schnitt (Harvard/BID) is President-Elect. The newly elected (by the Academy membership) Council members are: Lara Lamps (University of Arkansas), John Eble (Indiana University), and Fred Barr (Univ. Penn).

Dr. Jack Strong (LSU) has stepped down as the head of the Finance Committee, which is now headed by Dr. Peter Banks (Carolinas Medical Center) and our newest member is Dr. Allan Tucker (USA/Mobile). The Publications Committee previously chaired by Dr. Allen Gown is now chaired by Dr. Ronald DeLellis with Dr. Marc Rosenblum (Sloan-Kettering Memorial) as our newest member. The newest members of the Young Investigator Committee are Drs. Fred Barr and Arul Chinnaiyan. New Members of the Castleman Award Committee include: Drs. Chris Fletcher and Mark Stoler. New members of the Vogel Award Committee are Drs. Ester Oliva and Daniel Brat. Dr. Jennifer Hunt will join Dr. Bill Gardner as a member of the Pathology Section Council at the AMA House of Delegates. All of the members of the various USCAP Committees are noted on our website (www.uscap.org).

The new at-large member of the Nominating Committee (under the Direction of our Immediate Past President--Dr. Victor Reuter) is Dr. Jennifer Hunt. If you have nominations for Council (or any available committee position) please let the central Augusta office know ( fsilva@uscap.org ).

Please check the USCAP Website (www.uscap.org) for an immense number of educational materials which are free. Over five year's worth of our evening 16 plus Specialty Conferences and over 25 Companion Society's materials are up as well over 75 excellent, ended Short Courses and available to anyone who wishes to utilize them. In addition, as noted before, three successive years of our scientific abstracts are now online and searchable, and can be downloaded, as well as many Short Courses. That's over 5000 searchable cutting-edge scientific abstracts! We also have a Table of Contents by over 24 organ systems/subspecialties of our nineteen hundred entries/modules for all to have for free. Our USCAP Website continues to have record-setting hits with over 46 million "hits" and 5.6 million page downloads in 2008 from 22,000 unique pathologists in 168 countries–a true global forum for our colleagues. That also includes from 10,000-15,000 slide views a month for our Virtual Slides. The USCAP is happy to provide this free altruistic service for pathologists throughout the world. Go to: www.uscap.org for the largest eBook in the history of anatomic and diagnostic molecular pathology, for free (the March, 2009 figures shows over 10 million "hits" and over 1 million page views, an all-time record. Over 1600 different educational offerings/modules were viewed during March, 2009).

At present the USCAP membership is in excess of 10,600 pathologists (from 77 countries in addition to the US and Canada); over 2000 of those are Junior Members. We continue to grow and be vibrant. It is clear that our colleagues in pathology are a very dedicated and professional lot. We are proud to be associated with them.

Thanks for all your support for all those we serve--our patients, our physicians and our students.

Hope to see you in Niagra Falls (not literally!), Tampa, Lake Tahoe/Nevada, and Washington DC.


Fred Silva, Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Vice President, USCAP
April 8, 2009