The Case of the Quarter (CoQ) Committee for the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society is seeking six new committee members to join our team for a term of 2 years starting from March 1, 2024.

The CoQ will publish six times each year (January 15th, March 15th, May 15th, July 15th, September 15th and November 15th) on the PBPS website. Every CoQ committee member is responsible for submitting or soliciting at least one case during each year of their term on the CoQ committee. The CoQ members are responsible for the selection, writing, editing, and final submission of an interesting CoQ for publication on PBPS website (https://pbpath.org/). The CoQ is a valued educational tool among our community and a great way to network with others in the field.

Interested PBPath members should send their CV to info@pbpath.org by Friday September 15, 2023. Applicants must be members of the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society.

Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Best Abstract Award of USCAP2023 goes to Dr. Dalia Elganainy.

Congratulations to Dr. Dalia Elganainy, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, who was awarded the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society’s Best Abstract at USCAP 2023! Dr. Elganainy’s winning abstract is entitled “Landscape, Spatial Organization and Clinical Correlates of Stromal Content and Fibroblast Subtypes in Primary Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Assessed by Multiplexed Immunofluorescence and Digital Imaging.” Dr. Elganainy was presented the award at USCAP 2023 by Drs. Wang and Basturk.

The authors for this abstract are listed below:

Dalia Elganainy, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School (Primary Presenter)
Andressa Dias Costa, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Sara A. Väyrynen, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Hannah Williams, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Chen Yuan, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Kimberly Perez, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School
Harshabad Singh, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School
Richard F. Dunne, MD, University of Rochester Medical Center
Thomas E. Clancy, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Daniel T. Chang, MD, Stanford Cancer Institute
Brian M. Wolpin, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Cancer Center
Jonathan Nowak, MD, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Dear Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Members,

We are gearing up for another annual USCAP meeting! Our Companion Society session will be held on Sunday, March 12th from 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM in Great Hall A of the New Orleans Convention Center. The PBPS Annual Business Meeting will immediately follow.

This year’s companion meeting will have two components:
        Part I will be dedicated to presentations on Interpretation of Small Biopsies and Frozen Sections of the Pancreatobiliary Tract. The chosen topics represent expert evaluations of the full spectrum of small biopsies one may see in practice, from the cytopathologist’s perspective (Dr. Martha Pitman – WHO International Classification System for the Reporting of Pancreatobiliary Cytology Specimens) to their histomorphologic characteristics (Dr. Alyssa Krasinskas – Bile Duct and Ampulla; Dr. Claudio Luchini – Pancreas), and frozen section evaluation (Dr. Wendy Frankel).
        Part II will be dedicated to an interactive discussion moderated by Drs. Vikram Deshpande and Grace Kim. For this part, we will utilize the PBPath Society Twitter account to post questions in advance (Please keep an eye on our Twitter account https://twitter.com/pbpath for more information on that).

Thanks to the members of the Executive and Education Committees who are dedicated to the growth of our Society and have worked hard to increase our outreach and be impactful, there is more good news:

        The PBPath Society, in collaboration with the Chinese American Pathologist Association (CAPA), will participate in the 13th annual Asia Pacific International Academy of Pathology meeting in Malaysia in June, 2023. Ampullary carcinoma (Dr. Volkan Adsay) cholangiocarcinoma (Dr. Seung Mo Hong) and intraductal papillary neoplasms of the bile duct (Dr. Yoh Zen) will be discussed.
        Additionally, Drs. Alyssa Krasinskas and Barbara Centeno will present our society’s official short course titled “The ABCs to XYZs of Pancreatic Surgical and Cytopathology” at the next annual CAP meeting in October, 2023.

Lastly, if you have not already done so, we would also like to take this opportunity to remind you to renew your membership. We look forward to seeing you all in New Orleans, LA!

Sincerely,

Olca Basturk, President
Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society

Dear members of the PBPS,

The PBPS is now accepting applications for this year’s PBPS Abstract Award. This award will go to a pathology trainee with an abstract (poster/platform) in pancreatobiliary pathology to be presented at the 2023 USCAP Annual Meeting. Submitted abstracts will be evaluated by the members of Education Committee for originality, scientific merit, and presentation. The selected winner will be notified by email from the Chair of Education Committee and the winner will receive a $500 prize. The qualifications for this award are listed below:

• Only abstracts that were accepted for presentation at this year’s annual USCAP meeting are qualified for the PBPS Best Abstract Award.
• Only trainees (medical students, residents, or fellows) are qualified for this award.
  The submitting trainee must be a member of the PBPS. Please note that associate membership in the PBPS is free for trainees. Trainees are strongly encouraged to apply.
• The submitting trainee must be first author (except in rare instances in which the trainee may be listed as the senior author).
• Trainees will not receive an award if they have won in the prior year. If you are the winner of the PBPS award for last year, then you do not qualify for consideration for the current year.
• The deadline for submission of Award applications is 12:00 pm (US Central time) on February 6, 2023.

Please submit your abstract online (https://pbpath.org/abstract-submission/).

We look forward to receiving your submission.

Education Committee

The Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society

Dear All,

November is the Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. Recognition of the growing prevalence of pancreatic cancer, with the help of foundations and organizations like the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society, can help direct resources towards research and clinical care efforts. Thursday, November 17 is World Pancreatic Cancer Day – an even more focused opportunity to recognize this disease and the numerous efforts to improve the care of those affected. Please remember to “wear purple” and spread the word.

We, the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society, send our support to the survivors, their families and to everyone who has lost a loved one to this deadly disease. This is also an opportunity to thank our membership for their dedication to improve the clinical practice and management of pancreatic cancer and to foster tissue-based research. 

Olca Basturk, President 

Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society

Dear Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Members,

Despite all the challenges of the COVID19 pandemic, PBPath Society remained very productive last year, thanks to the members of the committees who worked extremely hard to strengthen the existing activities and to bring new initiatives to our organization. I’d like to share with you a few items:

PBPath Society participated in the annual CAP meeting in Chicago, IL in September 2021. Dr. Michelle Reid and I presented the society’s first official course titled “EUS-Guided and “SpyBite” Biopsies of Pancreatic and Biliary Tract Lesions (FNA versus Biopsy)”. This course is scheduled to be repeated at the next annual CAP meeting in October 2022.

The first joint virtual course organized by collaboration of PBPath Society and PathCast was a 2-day course held in January 2022. A total of eight international speakers presented a range of topics covering various aspects of pancreatobiliary pathology. The course was a huge success and was received more than 40,000 in multiple platforms including PBPath.org, YouTube, and Facebook. If you have not attended the course yet, it is still available on our website for virtual viewing (https://pbpath.org/pbps-pathcast-2022/).

Our annual Companion Society Meeting returned to the in-person format at the annual USCAP meeting in Los Angeles, CA in March, 2022. The featured theme “Clonal Evolution of Pancreatobiliary Neoplasms” was received extremely well. I want to thank our speakers, Drs. Yoh Zen, Elizabeth Thompson and David Klimstra for their excellent educational talks, our moderators Drs. Klimstra and Allende for hosting the Q&A session, and you, our members, for your record attendance.

At our annual business meeting, which followed the companion session, we welcomed many new members and presented the PBPath Society abstract award to Dr. Burcin Pehlivanoglu, for her research presentation entitled “TPPP-BRD9 Fusion-Related Gallbladder Carcinomas are Associated with Intracholecystic Neoplasia, Neuroendocrine Carcinoma and a Distinctive Small Tubular-Type Adenocarcinoma Commonly Accompanied with Syringomatous Pattern” (congratulations Dr. Pehlivanoglu!). The official minutes of the Business Meeting can be found on the PBPath Society website (https://pbpath.org/business-meeting-minutes/).

I am also excited to announce that Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine recently published another special section based on the talks given in our previous Companion Society Meeting at USCAP in 2020. I would like to thank Drs. Michelle Reid, David Klimstra, Irene Esposito, and Jing-Young Jang, for their excellent review articles (Arch Pathol Lab Med March 2022 Volume 146 Issue 3; https://meridian.allenpress.com/aplm/issue/146/3)

The Working Groups have been productive as well and published 2 articles:
Dhall D, Shi J, Allende DS, Jang KT, Basturk O, Adsay V, Kim GE. Towards a More Standardized Approach to Pathologic Reporting of Pancreatoduodenectomy Specimens for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: Cross-continental and Cross-specialty Survey from the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Grossing Working Group. Am J Surg Pathol. 2021; 45(10):1364-1373.

Wang H, Chetty R, Hosseini M, Allende DS, Esposito I, Matsuda Y, Deshpande V, Shi J, Dhall D, Jang KT, Kim GE, Luchini C, Graham RP, Reid MD, Basturk O, Hruban RH, Krasinskas A, Klimstra DS, Adsay V; Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society. Pathologic Examination of Pancreatic Specimens Resected for Treated Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: Recommendations from the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society. Am J Surg Pathol. 2022; 46(6):754-764.

Finally, our Challenging Case Series, kindly edited by Dr. Rondell Graham, was created for the review of interesting and challenging pancreatobiliary cases in real time. The first case has already been published and can be found on our website (https://pbpath.org/welcome-to-pbps-challenging-cases/). Please keep an eye on our website for detailed discussion of this, and future cases.

I would like to thank the amazing members of the PBPath Society who are dedicated to the growth of our Society and have worked hard to make these accomplishments a reality! Several additional exciting opportunities for PBPath Society to increase our outreach and be impactful is already being explored; as these plans mature, we will share news about these events.

I am honored to have been elected President of the PBPS and I am proud to carry on the tradition of fostering excellence and collaboration in education, research, and the clinical practice of pancreatobiliary pathology around the world.

– Olca Basturk, MD

PBPS pathCast 2022

Dear members of the PBPS,

PBPS, together with PathCast, organized a free 2-day course which was streamed live on January 29-30, 2022 on FaceBook.com/PathCast as well as YouTube.com/pathCast. Here is link of the recorded course videos:

https://pathologycast.com/index.php?title=Pancreatobiliary_Pathology_Society_pathCast_Short_Course

January 29th 2022

8:00 – 9:20 AM (EST): Intraductal/cystic lesions of the pancreas (40 minute prerecorded didactic powerpoint – Dr Olca Basturk) followed by a 40 minute slide session on Intraductal/cystic lesions of pancreas – Dr David Klimstra); live Q and A at 9:20 AM (15 minutes) – Dr David Klimstra and Dr Olca Basturk

 

9:40 – 11:10 AM (EST): Neuroendocrine neoplasms of the pancreas and differential diagnosis: (40 minute prerecorded didactic powerpoint) followed by a 40 minute slide session); live Q and A at 11:10 AM (15 minutes) – Dr Stefano LaRosa and Dr Silvia Uccella

 

January 30th 2022

8:00 – 8:50 AM (EST): Gallbladder and bile duct: 50 minute didactic lecture followed by a 10 minute live Q and A at 8:50 AM – Dr Volkan Adsay

 

9:00 – 9:50 AM (EST): Cytology of the Bile Duct: 50 minute didactic lecture followed by a 10 minute live Q and A at 9:50 AM – Dr Michelle Reid

 

10:05 – 11:20 AM (EST):Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and variants (40 minute pre-recorded didactic powerpoint – Dr Laura Wood); Approach to neoadjuvant treated pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (40 minute prerecorded didactic powerpoint – Dr Huamin Wang); Live Q and A at 11:20 AM – Dr Laura Wood and Dr Huamin Wang (15 minutes

 

 

 

The PBPS social media committee is seeking three new committee members (regular or associate) to join our team. This position has a 2-year term.

The integral members of this committee will actively disseminate and increase the visibility of Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society events and updates (via Twitter @pbpath).

Interested PBPS members should send their CV and Twitter account handle to info@pbpath.org by September 9, 2022. Successful committee members must be active members of the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society.

Please view our society’s SOPs below:

PBPS Case of the Quarter – SOP

PBPS Social Media – SOP 

PBPS Membership – SOP

PBPS Website – SOP

PBPS Webmaster – SOP

PBPS Job Posting – SOP

 

 

 Instructions for participation:

1. Review this digital case as though it arrived to you in consultation. 
2. Provide your diagnosis, differential diagnoses and suggested ancillary tests at the bottom of this page within 2 weeks of the post date*.
3. All responses will be collated and compiled along with the final diagnosis.
4. Please return to this page in the coming weeks to view the final diagnosis as well as others’ responses. 

PBPS Challenging Case 1 – July 11, 2022

Clinical history:
A 32-year-old male with a history of Hodgkin’s lymphoma and biliary atresia. He had undergone transplant and was found to have distal pancreas mass during surveillance.

Pathologic findings:

Distal pancreatectomy revealed a 4.3 cm, well circumscribed, predominantly solid mass abutting the splenic vein. 

Representative scanned H&E slides (select link to open images)

H&E 1

https://pathpresenter.net/public/display?token=f8789272

H&E 2

https://pathpresenter.net/public/display?token=ca3927d4

Select scanned immunohistochemical (IHC) stains (select link to open images):

Cam 5.2 IHC

https://pathpresenter.net/public/display?token=6e1b407d

Calretinin IHC

https://pathpresenter.net/public/display?token=b4d3bde0

Beta-catenin IHC

https://pathpresenter.net/public/display?token=cb61d7fb

Summary of all IHC stains performed:

– Express: CAM 5.2 (scanned), CK19, CK5, Ber-EP4, claudin-4 (focal), calretinin (scanned), SATB2 (patchy), CD99 (patchy, membranous), inhibin (rare cells), CD10 (focal) and a Ki67 stain reveals a
proliferative rate of 15%.

– Do NOT express: CK7, CK20, CDX2, trypsin, chymotrypsin, carboxyl ester lipase, chromogranin, synaptophysin, INSM1, insulin, glucagon, somatostatin, pancreatic polypeptide, p40, p63, monoclonal CEA, EMA, TTF1, HepPar-1, Glypican-3, GATA3, PAX8, NKX3.1, SF-1, WT1, D2-40, SALL4, CD117, DOG1, CD34, SMA, calponin, ERG, CD45, S100, SOX10, melanoma cocktail

– Other: aberrant beta-catenin (nuclear and cytoplasmic, scanned), E-cadherin (membranous), p53 wild-type, RB1 retained, ATRX retained, MMR retained, mucicarmine negative

Next generation sequencing (NGS) result: No mutations, deletions or fusion detected

Case was submitted by: Dr. Klaudia Nowak from Toronto General Hospital, and Dr. Olca Basturk from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

*NOTE: The submission of case discussion has been closed.

*Thank you all for your feedback on the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society’s first challenging case. A panel of experts (Drs. Volkan Adsay, Michelle Reid, and Huamin Wang) has also reviewed the case and rendered their diagnoses. Please see the discussion summary now posted HERE for details.