Elaine S Jaffe, M.D.

2019 USCAP Board’s Distinguished Pathologist

Dr. Jaffe studied at Cornell University Medical College and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving the M.D. from the latter. Her residency and fellowship in pathology were completed at the National Cancer Institute, where she went on to become Chief of the Hematopathology Section of the Laboratory of Pathology.

One of her earliest papers on follicular lymphoma (1974), a Citation Classic, presented evidence for the origin of this tumor from follicular B cells. More recently she described in situ follicular lymphomas, which provide insight into the earliest events of follicular lymphomagenesis, and identified histiocytic/dendritic cell tumors arising in follicular lymphoma, providing the first evidence for lineage plasticity in mature human lymphoid cells. She has authored more than 600 peer reviewed articles, 40 invited editorials, and more than 150 chapters and invited reviews.

Dr. Jaffe was an Editor for the 2001 and 2008 editions of the WHO Classification of Tumors of the Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues and was one of four series editors overseeing the 4th Edition Series of Bluebooks for the classification of human tumors, under the auspices of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization. Her textbook, Hematopathology, is now in its second edition. Dr. Jaffe has served on 21 journal editorial boards, including the USCAP journals, Modern Pathology and Laboratory Investigation.

Science Watch named her among the 10 most highly cited researchers in clinical oncology from 1981 and 1998, and she was among the 400 most highly cited researchers in all Biomedical Sciences worldwide between 1996 and 2011. She is past president of both the Society for Hematopathology and USCAP. She has held several leadership positions in the American Society of Hematology. Among her awards are the Fred W. Stewart Award from Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Lennert prize from the European Association for Haematopathology, the Maude Abbott Lecturer for the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the Stratton medal from the American Society of Hematology, and the Rous Whipple Award from the American Society of Investigative Pathology in 2016. Dr. Jaffe was recognized for her mentoring with awards from the National Cancer Institute and the American Society of Investigative Pathology. She received an honorary degree from the University of Barcelona, and the Distinguished Graduate Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2011.

In 1993, Dr. Jaffe was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and subsequently was elected Chair of the Medical Sciences Section of AAAS. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies – now the National Academy of Medicine – and currently serves as Membership Chair for Section 4 (Internal Medicine, Pathology and Dermatology).