Tag: President’s Message

Message from the President

Message from the President

Dear Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Members,

Happy Winter!

We are gearing up for the annual USCAP meeting! Our Companion Society session will be held on Saturday, February 29th from 7-10 pm in room LACC 502-A. Our annual Business Meeting will immediately follow. This year is the end of the two-year terms for the Executive Committee so we will be presenting the slate for President, Vice President and Secretary Treasurer. Please attend and cast your votes!  Also, nominations have been submitted for the PBPath Society Abstract Award and the winner will be announced at the Business Meeting.

Our society has been extremely productive over the past several months. The creation of an excellent program for the Companion Society by our Education Committee is only one of several accomplishments. I am excited to inform everyone that Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is going to publish review articles sponsored by the PBPath Society. These articles are based on the lectures that were given during our Companion Society Meeting at USCAP 2019. Please keep an eye out for these publications. Our Case of the Quarter Subcommittee remains active and has been providing educational cases for all members to tackle; this past fall, we welcomed 4 new members to the subcommittee: Deyali Chatterjee, Goo Lee, Yue Xue and Zhaohai Yang.  Our bimonthly Journal Watch nicely highlights pertinent publications involving the pancreatobiliary tract.

And there is more good news. Because of Serdar Balci’s web-based knowledge and dedication to the society, the Membership/Website Committee, along with the Executive Committee, have appointed Serdar Balci as the official Webmaster for the society – congratulations Serdar on this well-deserved appointment!  The PBPath Society is also now accepting ads for job and fellowship postings.  The Working Groups have been productive as well:  The Cytology group is wrapping-up a multi-institutional study assessing the minimal number of tumor cells required for Ki67 index calculation on pancreas FNA samples using corresponding resections as the gold standard for comparison, and the Neoadjuvant group presented their data at the 2019 USCAP Annual Meeting and is planning to write a consensus paper based on the group’s work. This past fall, PBPath Society members also participated in the ASCP, CAP and European Congress of Pathology annual meetings. Most recently, we’ve been asked to provide input on the ICCR’s draft dataset on carcinoma of the exocrine pancreas (please check your emails as the deadline is February 14th).

Our society continues to be a success because of you, its members! I would like to recognize the following members who continuously contribute time and effort to our society: Olca Basturk, for organizing another stellar USCAP Companion Society session; Serdar Balci for publishing the bimonthly journal watch; Mabel Ko for managing our website and the members of the Executive Committee, Grace Kim, David Klimstra, David Lewin, Volkan Adsay, and Olca Basturk, for keeping everything on track and in order.

The PBPath Society is an international organization that strives to improve the clinical practice of pancreatobiliary pathology by providing an environment of team work and cooperation.  As my Presidency comes to an end, it amazes me how much we have accomplished over the past 2 years.  None of what we now have would have been possible without such collegial, friendly, and motivated members. I am so happy and so proud that I had the chance to serve as the President of this great society.

– Alyssa M. Krasinskas, MD

 

Message from the President for USCAP2019

Dear Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Members,

It’s March, which means the 2019 annual USCAP meeting is upon us! Please join us on Saturday March 16th for our Companion Society Meeting: “Challenging Topics in Pancreatic Neoplasia: I: An Update on Non-ductal Neoplasms and II: Approach to Neo-adjuvant Treated Ductal Adenocarcinoma.” Our Education Committee has created an informative two-part session that will first cover non-ductal neoplasms of the pancreas followed by the pathologic evaluation of treated pancreatic cancer that will include an update about our Neo-adjuvant Therapy Working Group. The Education Committee has also been busy reviewing the 15 abstracts they received for the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Abstract Award, and the winner will be announced at our annual Business Meeting, which will immediately follow the Companion Society session from 9:45 pm – 10:00 pm. For those who are unable to attend, please check our website after the meeting.

Our society has been productive over the past several months in other areas as well. The next case of the quarter will soon be released – keep an eye out for it on our website! Our bimonthly journal watch nicely highlights pertinent publications involving the pancreatobiliary tract. Both of these activities are now perks of membership. If you are not an active member, please join or renew your membership online! If you are a new member, welcome! In addition to the Neo-adjuvant Therapy Working Group, we have two other active Working Groups: The Grossing Working Group is in the process of writing a manuscript and the Cytology Working Group has been formed and is gathering data.

Our society would not be a success if it were not for the tireless efforts of our members. I would like to recognize the following members who have been making an impact in our society: Olca Basturk, who was instrumental in organizing this year’s companion session; Serdar Balci for publishing the bimonthly journal watch; Jiaqi Shi and Michelle Reid for contributing the cases of the quarter; Mabel Ko for managing our website; and the members of the Executive Committee, Grace Kim, David Klimstra, David Lewin, Volkan Adsay and Olca, for keeping everything on track and in order.

I am proud to be part of this international organization that strives to improve the clinical practice of pancreatobiliary pathology by providing a comfortable environment of team work and cooperation. An organization from which will sprout future leaders in the field of pancreatobiliary pathology.

– Alyssa M. Krasinskas, MD

Message from the President

Message from the President

Dear Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society Members,

Last year was a very productive year that culminated with our inaugural Companion Society Meeting at the annual USCAP meeting in Vancouver, Canada in March. I want to thank our speakers, Ralph Hruban, Olca Basturk, and Gunter Kloppel for their excellent educational talks, and Daniela Allende and Grace Kim for presenting a summary of the findings from the Grossing Working Group, our first active working group. I want to thank the audience for their attendance (and for not being distracted by the beautiful scenery that flanked one entire wall of the meeting room).

At our annual business meeting, which immediately followed the companion session, the PBPS presented its abstract award to Tao Wang for his presentation entitled “Mass-Forming Intraductal Neoplasms of the Biliary Tract Comprise Morphologically and Genetically Distinct Entities” (congratulations Tao!) and we welcomed many new members. The official minutes of the Business Meeting are available on our website.

Members of all PBPS committees worked extremely hard over the past year not only to create a successful companion session, but to also strengthen existing and bring new activities to our young society. I’d like to recognize the following members who really made this past year a success: Olca Basturk, who was instrumental in organizing the companion session; Daniela Allende and Grace Kim, for their contributions to the companion session; Mabel Ko for creating, updating and managing our website; and David Lewin, for running the business meeting and keeping our finances in order.

I’d like to touch upon a few items that are currently in the PBPS pipeline:

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.

– Alyssa M. Krasinskas, MD

President’s Message – November 2017

Dr. Volkan Adsay
President (2017)
Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society

Dear PBPS family,

We are excited that our first official Companion meeting will take place at the annual meeting of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, on Saturday, March 17, 2018, 7 pm to 10 pm, in Vancouver, Canada.

The session we are organizing will have two components.

Part I will be talks delivered on the recent developments on molecular-genetic characterization of pancreatic neoplasia that are leading to revisions in the way we view and classify these neoplasms.

– Ralph Hruban. Pancreatic Cancer Genetics, The long and Winding Road.
– Olca Basturk. Genomic Profiling of Intraductal Neoplasms of Pancreatobiliary Tract.
– Gunter Kloeppel. Molecular Signatures of PanNENs.

Part II will be dedicated to interactive discussion (with “clickers”) on the challenges of staging of PB cancers per AJCC/UICC 8th edition that is going into effect in Jan, 2018, and how grossing impacts the evaluation of PB specimens for this and other theranostic purposes. The PBPS Annual Business Meeting will immediately follow the symposium.

We are hoping you agree that this is a program not to miss and that you will make every effort to participate in this inaugural event.

I would also like to report to you that the Cytology and Grossing Working Groups have now been constituted and beginning their work as we speak. For the interactive part our Companion meeting at USCAP on staging/grossing, please forward any questions or comments to us for us to incorporate them to the discussions.

I would like to thank to the members of the Executive and Education Committees of PBPS who have worked hard to make these happen.

Let me also take this opportunity to ask you to renew your membership if you have not already done so.We look forward to seeing you all in Saturday, March 17, at 7 pm in Vancouver.

Sincerely,

Volkan Adsay, MD
President, Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society

N. Volkan Adsay, MD
Professor of Pathology
Medical College of Wisconsin
9200 W. Wisconsin Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53226
(414) 805 8066 | Fax: (414) 805 8444 | Email: nadsay@mcw.edu