Department of Pathology & Immunology shines at USCAP 2023

The Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine shined at the USCAP Annual Meeting in 2023. Notably, Dr. Sanica Bhele and Dr. Hansini Laharwani, were honored with awards at the meeting, which was held March 11 – 16 in New Orleans, LA. Several faculty and trainees presented posters at the event, and numerous faculty were featured at platform sessions and conferences. The department also participated in USCAP’s Fellowship Fair, where we met with potential fellows to discuss our training programs.

Sanica Bhele, MD, a Head & Neck Pathology fellow, won the Endocrine Pathology Society Award for Runner-up Best Poster by a Trainee for her outstanding poster titled “Characterization of DICER1 Mutations in Clinically Aggressive Thyroid Carcinomas from a Large Database of Real-World Patient Samples.” Hansini Laharwani, MD, a Gynecologic and Breast Pathology fellow, won a special recognition award from Ace My Path, a distinguished U.S.-based pathology education company.

Poster presentations included (in chronological order):

• “Prevalence of Anti-Angiotensin Type 1 Receptor Antibody in Heart Transplant
  Recipients without Evidence of Rejection” by resident Guilherme Gomide Almeida, MD; Donna Phelan, BA, Barnes-Jewish Hospital; Jonathan Moreno, MD, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine; Chang Liu, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Director of the HLA Fellowship; Chieh-Yu Lin, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Autopsy
• “Enteroblastic, Hepatoid and Clear Cell Adenocarcinoma of the Colorectum Show Significant Morphologic Overlap but Demonstrate Some Clinicopathologic Differences” by fellow Fahad N. Khan, MD
• “Clinical Outcomes of Atypical Placental Site Nodule” by fellow Hansini Laharwani, MD; and Ian S. Hagemann, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of the Gynecologic and Breast Pathology Fellowship
• “Gastrointestinal Histoplasmosis in Immunocompromised Patients: Pitfalls of Confirmatory Diagnosis with Urine Antigen and Serum Antibody Testing” by fellow Alicia Gabrielle Dessain, MD; and Kathleen Byrnes, MD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Director of the MS3-4 AP Clinical Clerkship, and Associate Director of the Liver/GI Fellowship
• “Clinicopathologic Utility and Impact of Microorganism Identification with Next-Generation Sequencing in Liver Biopsies” by Samuel J. Ballentine, MD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Associate Residency Director; Kathleen Byrnes, MD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Director of the MS3-4 AP Clinical Clerkship, and Associate Director of the Liver/GI Fellowship; and Jane Lee, MD, University of Wisconsin
• “How Reproducible is the Indeterminate Thyroid FNA Diagnosis? A Quality Improvement
  Project to Determine Optimal Use of this Category” by resident Shiva Jabbari, MD; and Vijayalakshmi Padmanabhan, MD, PPH, Professor, Pathology and Immunology, Director, of Anatomic Pathology Quality & Safety, and Section Head of Cytopathology
• “Characterization of DICER1 Mutations in Clinically Aggressive Thyroid Carcinomas from a Large Database of Real-World Patient Samples” by fellow Sanica Bhele, MD, Washington University School of Medicine; Mena Mansour, MD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Frozen Section; and Rebecca Chernock, MD, Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Section Head of Head and Neck Pathology, and Director of the Selective (Head & Neck) Pathology Fellowship
• “Distinct Clinicopathologic and Molecular Subgroups in Colorectal Adenocarcinoma” by Xiuli Liu, MD, PhD, Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Section Head of Liver/GI, Director of the Liver/GI Fellowship
• “Serosal Involvement and Mesenteric Tumor Deposits Increase Progression Risk in Small Bowel Neuroendocine Tumors without Distant Metastases at Resection” by Changqing Ma, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology
• “Autophagy-Associated ATG16L1 T300A Genotype is Associated with Decreased
  Survival and Increased Tumor Inflammatory Response in Hepatocellular Carcinoma ” by Changqing Ma, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology
• “Validation of Metallothionein Immunohistochemistry as a Highly Sensitive Screen for Wilson Disease” by Kathleen Byrnes, MD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Director of the MS3-4 AP Clinical Clerkship, and Associate Director of the Liver/GI Fellowship
• “Interobserver Reliability of the IASLC Histopathologic Grading Scheme and Evaluation of Tumor Spread Through Air Spaces (STAS) in Invasive Lung Adenocarcinoma” by incoming chief resident Callie Torres, DO; Chieh-Yu Lin, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Autopsy; Jon Ritter, MD, Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Section Head of Thoracic Pathology, and Director of the Surgical (Selective) Pathology Fellowship; Cory Bernadt, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology and Director of the Cytopathology Fellowship; Richard Cote, MD, Edward Mallinckrodt Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology & Immunology and Pathologist-in-Chief, Barnes-Jewish Hospital; Mark Watson, MD, PhD, Professor, Pathology & Immunology and Vice Chair of the Office of Faculty Development; Siddarth Rawal, MD, Washington University School of Medicine; and Ramaswamy Govindan, MD, Washington University School of Medicine
• “Sarcomatous Transformation in Hemosiderotic Fibrolipomatous Tumor (HFLT): A Potential Role for TERT Promoter Mutations” by Molly Schroeder, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology and Associate Director of the Laboratory Genetics and Genomics Fellowship; John Chrisinger, MD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Bone and Soft Tissue; and Michael Evenson, MS, Washington University School of Medicine
• “Evaluation of Factors Affecting Neoadjuvant Treatment Response in Breast Cancer Metastatic to Local Lymph Nodes” by chief resident and incoming Breast and Gynecologic Pathology fellow Ariel D. Wu, MD; Lulu Sun, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology; and Ling Chen, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine

Platform session presentations included (in chronological order):

• “Updates in Myocarditis: What is on the Horizon?” by Chieh-Yu Lin, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Autopsy
• “Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) of Non-Pleomorphic (PRMS) and Non-Alveolar (ARMS) Subtype in Adults: A retrospective Review of 133 Cases” by Carina A. Dehner, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic; John Chrisinger, MD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Bone and Soft Tissue; Kevin C. Halling, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic; Sounak Gupta, PhD, Mayo Clinic; Andrew L. Folpe, MD, Mayo Clinic
• “Prevalence of CCR2+ Macrophages in Sarcoidosis and a Novel Non-invasive
  Molecular Imaging” by Chieh-Yu Lin, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Autopsy
• “Clinicopathologic Features of Gastrointestinal Tract Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis” by Changqing Ma, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology; Liang-I Kang, MD, PhD, Instructor, Pathology & Immunology; and Xiuli Liu, MD, PhD, Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Section Head of Liver/GI, Director of the Liver/GI Fellowship

Conference presentations included (in chronological order):

• “Evening Specialty Conference: Head, Neck and Endocrine Pathology” featuring Rebecca Chernock, MD, Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Section Head of Head and Neck Pathology, and Director of the Selective (Head & Neck) Pathology Fellowship
• “Evening Specialty Conference: Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology” featuring a talk, ““Bone and Soft Tissue Tumors that don’t follow the rules,” by John Chrisinger, MD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Bone and Soft Tissue

At USCAP’s Fellowship Fair, current trainees including incoming chief resident Callie Torres, DO, and Justavian Tillman, PhD, our manager of Educational Programs, met with trainees to discuss our clinical fellowship programs. We enjoyed meeting with potential trainees to discuss training opportunities in the department.

Finally, the department is proud to announce that Chieh-Yu Lin, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Autopsy, will serve on the Education Committee for USCAP starting in April 2023 for three years. We look forward to seeing Dr. Lin’s contributions to the meeting.