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 

 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. 

The PBPS journal watch (JW) is seeking a new committee member to join our team for a term of 3 years. The JW is posted every 2 months and includes articles to be highlighted from the most relevant journals in pancreatobiliary pathology. The JW is a valued educational tool among our community and a great way to network with others in the field.  

Interested PBPS members should send CV to info@pbpath.org by June 8, 2022.  Applicants must be paid members of the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society. 

Daniela Allende, MD MBA, PBPS JW Editor 

The PBPath Website/Membership committee is seeking new committee members to join our team, for a term of 3 years.
The website/membership team member(s) will help the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society maintain and expand our membership, post updates to our website, and send newsletters to our members. Experience with WordPress and/or HTML is a plus, but not required.

The ideal candidates possess a willingness to learn and a team-player mentality.

Interested PBPath members should send CV to info@pbpath.org. Successful committee members must be active members of the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society.

The Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Executive Committee