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
