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 REPORT OF THE 95thd ANNUAL MEETING OF THE   The General Registration of the meeting was one of the four highest in the history of USCAP attendance (2005, 2003, and 1999). These attendance figures continue to make the annual meeting of the Academy the largest gathering, by far, of physician-pathologists in the world. Indeed, for the past five years we have regularly had 3100 or more in attendance. 538 of the registrants/attendees at the Atlanta meeting were from international countries outside of the US and Canada. The countries (and the number of international visitors from each country) included: Mexico (60), Japan (52), Spain (51), United Kingdom (48), Italy (36), South Korea (25), Australia (24), Brazil (21), Germany (21), Argentina (16), France (16), Switzerland (14), Netherlands (13), Taiwan (9), Turkey (8), Belgium (8), Czech Republic (7), Greece (6), Norway (6), Portugal (5), Chile (5), Columbia (5), Israel (5), and the remainder four or less individuals from each of the remaining countries (China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Egypt, European Union, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iran, Jordan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the West Indies.) Thus, in toto, 538 international visitors from fifty-four countries outside of the USA and Canada were in attendance (17% of our total registrants). Of the 3134 general registrants, 1876 were Regular, Sustaining or Emeritus members (60%) and 796 were Junior Members (also an all-time record attendance). There were 279 pathologists in practice who were not members and 154 residents/fellows who were not members (yet). Thus including the Resident Monitors and other students, there were 979 residents/fellows at our meeting (an all-time record; almost 10% more than last years all-time record). The percentage of house staff attending the meeting who are members of the Academy are for the past six years - 41% , 69%, 67%, 66%, 76%, 84% respectively. This probably relates to the effective recruitment we have had of pathology house staff/fellows/pathologists-in-training in the last 7 years. In July 1999 we had 520 Junior Members; in the following seven years we recruited over 4150 additional Junior Members (many of which have now become Regular Members). Our present "steady state" of Junior Members is over 2100. Dr. Sylvia Asa (U.Toronto) served a distinguished and quite active term as President of the USCAP. She turned over the gavel and the Presidency to Dr. Henry Appelman (Univ. of Michigan) as the new President of the Academy. 2228 scientific abstracts were submitted for evaluation; an all-time record in submitted abstracts (all submitted electronically). The quality of the submitted abstracts remains very high. A record 1588 were accepted after "blind" peer review (71.3% acceptance). The review is conducted by at least 4 individuals from the Academy (3 "experts" in the area and one from the Academy Education Committee). The percentage of acceptance is generally dependent upon the space available at the hotel (which is usually booked 5-6 years in advance of the meeting). 1308 abstracts were presented in the poster sessions (a record) and 280 as platform sessions. We try to accommodate as many quality poster sessions as space allows. Abstracts were submitted from throughout the world (from approximately 40 countries and about 350 academic medical centers and institutions). This was the fifth year for the USCAP to have electronic submission of our scientific abstracts (in conjunction with Marathon, Inc). These scientific abstracts are now online searchable by topic, disease, word, technique, author, institution, etc (www.uscap.org). The USCAP website: www.uscap.org consistently has the last four years of scientific abstracts (over 4600) which are now searchable by topic, disease, author, etc for the last 3 years. . As noted before, 979 pathologists-in-training and students attended the various portions of the meeting. 53% of submitted scientific abstracts had a first author who is a pathologist-in-training (compared to 38% and 43% the last two years). Four hundred and ninety Stowell-Orbison Abstracts were submitted (the highest in Academy history). In the last three years we have had over a 60% increase in number of Stowell-Orbison abstract submissions. 218 were accepted for the Stowell-Orbison competition, and an additional 160 were accepted as regular abstracts (total 77%). Once again, the "scores" for the accepted Stowell-Orbisons were actually higher than the scores for the "regular" abstracts accepted for presentation (i.e, Non-Stowell-Orbison). There were four co-equal Stowell-Orbison Awards presented and four Certificates of Merit. The recipients, in alphabetical order of first authors name, of the Stowell-Orbison Awards are: PTEN Loss By Gliomas Induces Endothelial Tissue Factor Expression A Djalilvand, Y Rong, DL Durden, EG Van Meir, DJ Brat, Emory University, Atlanta, GA A Proposed Protocol for Sectioning and Extensively Examining the Fimbriated End of the Fallopian Tube (SEE-FIM): Implication for Detecting Tubal Epithelial Abnormalities in Women and Without BRCA Mutations F Medeiros, Y Lee, MG Muto, JA Elvin, EM Prusak, CP Crum., Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA Defining Prostate Cancer Progression by Molecular Profiling of Laser Capture Micro Dissected Prostate Tissues R Mehra, S Tomlins, D Rhodes, X Cao, A Chinnaiyan, RB Shah, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Assessment of Tumor Response to Histone Deacetylase Enzyme Inhibitors In Vivo by Utilizing Fine Needle Aspiration Technique C Xu, H Mezzadra, R Pili, S Altiok, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD The recipients of the Certificates of Merit are: Predictive Biomarkers of Breast Cancer Response to Neonadjuvant Chemotherapy and Their Relationship to Pathologic Assessment of Residual Disease EC Marginean, L Puzstai, GN Hortobagyi, WF Symmans, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX Molecular Evidence For the Same Clonal Origin of Multifocal Papillary Tumors in Patients With Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma RP McCarthy, M Wang, TD Jones, R Strate, L Cheng, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN A Taxia-Telangiectasia Mutated Gene Product Activity Increases Resistance to Aspergillus Fumigatus Gliotoxin Toxicity RE Shackelford, Y Fu, M Abdelbaqi, M Lowery-Nordberg, A Chen, Louisiana State University, Shreveport, LA Pseudo-Ground Glass Changes in Liver Biopsies J Wisell, M Haas, J Boitnott, R Anders, J Hart, J Lewis, SC Abraham, M Torbenson, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD; University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN The ADASP/USCAP Autopsy Award winning abstract was: The Vitreous Proteome: An Autopsy Study AV Rapkiewicz, M Lowenthal, DE Kleiner, LA Liotta, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD; George Mason University, Manassas, VA; University of Colorado, Aurora, CO The ADASP/USCAP Surgical Pathology Award was: Beta-Tubulin Immunoreactivity in Prostatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia (PIN) and Prostatic Adenocarcinoma KT Shafernak, BP Adley, XJ Yang, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 778 registrants attended the Long Course entitled "Pathology of Liver and Pancreas" directed by Drs. Linda Ferrell (Univ. California-San Francisco) and Volkan Adsay (Wayne State Univ). Early perusals of the critique form show that this course was very well done and very well liked by the registrants. The syllabus was quite complete (350 pages in length) and this Long Course includes a CD packed full of images. This Long Course will be published in the next year in Modern Pathology.(Last year's Long Course on Neoplastic Pathology of the Skin is in the February 06 issue of Modern Pathology). Sixty half-day Short Courses were presented and very well attended (with a total registration of Short Courses taken being 4073--that is the number of courses attended times the number of attendees at these sessions; an overall average of about 70 pathologists/per Short Course offering). From 1999 to the present time, the Academy has had regularly over 4000 in total registration each year. Most of our Short Courses have CD's. Two all-day Special Courses were offered: one on Introductory Molecular Pathology (headed by Drs. Julia Bridge (Univ. Nebraska), and Margie Scott (Univ. Arkansas) attracting 124 registrants on Thursday. For the second year in a row this course has a CD in addition to the extensive syllabus. The ongoing Advanced Molecular Pathology course (headed by Dr. Frederic Barr, Univ. of Pennsylvania) on Wednesday attracted 119 registrants and for the first time also included a CD in addition to the extensive syllabus. Twenty -three Companion Societies presented their educational endeavors on Saturday night and Sunday. The total registrations (number of attendees times the number of Companion Societies) was 2192, third highest in our history, after last years all-time record (2371) and 99's San Francisco’s 2230. For the past four years all of the Companion Societies and evening Specialty Conferences' handouts/syllabus have been placed on our website. (www.uscap.org) after the Annual meeting. This year was our first year for the Companions and the Specialties to go "paperless". All of the Companion Society handouts were on our USCAP Website at least 2-3 weeks before the meeting, and the Specialty Sessions had their unknowns (i.e., Clinical history and unknown slides) up one month before the Annual meeting, with the answers (i.e., text, powerpoints, references, answers, etc) up the morning after that evening Specialty Conference. The Nathan Kaufman Timely Topic Lecture was given by Dr. Tyler Jacks of MIT/Harvard. The title of his lecture was "Animal Models of Disease". His lecture was elegant, timely, and very well received by the appreciative audience of over 2000 pathologists. In fact he received a standing ovation for his lecture and his dedication to our meeting (having taken a 10 hour train ride to obtain a flight to Atlanta, during the severe winter storm that hit the Northeast USA!) Dr. Anna-Luise Katzenstein presented the Maude Abbott Lecture. Her topic was "Changing Concepts and New Ideas in Pulmonary Pathology." This elegant and wonderful lecture was also attended by over 2000 pathologists. Her’s was truly an outstanding presentation. The Distinguished Pathologists Award was presented this year to an individual in recognition of distinguished service in the development of the discipline of pathology. Dr. Harvey Goldman, Beth Israel Deaconess/Boston was recognized by the Academy membership for his major and extensive contributions to pathology over the years. Please see the USCAP Website (www.uscap.org) for Harvey’s biosketch. The President's Award was presented this year to the USCAP Office Staff: Jim Crimmins, Jo Ann Johnson, Carolyn Lane, Linda Haygood, Kerry Crockett, and Sally Miglionico. Their dedication and work is way "above and beyond the call of duty". They received a very lengthy and vibrant standing-ovation! (And deserved it!). Please see the USCAP Website of the 2006 Annual Meeting for details about these outstanding and dedicated individuals who have contributed so much to pathology world-wide. The F.K. Mostofi Distinguished Service Award went to Dr. Richard Zarbo (Henry Ford Hospital), former Short Course Coordinator, Chair of the Publication Co and Search Committee for our new publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Laboratory Investigation, and as well as multiple other significant contributions to the Academy. The Young Investigator Award was presented to Dr. Kojo S.J. Elenitoba-Johnson (Univ. Utah) for his outstanding, cutting-edge work in the field of hematopathology. The recipient of the Castleman Award (for the best published paper in the field of human pathology ) was Dr. Arul M. Chinnaiyan (Univ. of Michigan) for his article in Science entitled " Recurrent Fusion of TMPRSS2 and ETS Transcription Factor Genes in Prostate Cancer" in Science 310: 644, 2005. It must be noted that again the number of applications for this prestigious award were numerous, with many outstanding individuals having papers published in many outstanding journals. The F. Stephen Vogel Award (for the most outstanding paper published in an Academy journal by a pathologist-in-training ) went to Dr. Rohit Bhargava (Univ. Pittsburgh) for his paper entitled "EGFR gene amplification in breast cancer: Correlation with epidermal growth factor receptor mRNA and protein expression and HER-2 status and absence of EGFR activation mutations" Modern Pathology 18, 1027, 2005 The 17 evening Specialty Conferences, which are organ-based, were held from 7:30-9:30 PM, which was a testimony to the continuing endurance of the meeting's registrants. All of the evening Specialty Conferences are online on the Academy's website. For the past four years the unknowns (i.e., clinical history and representative histologic images) are placed on our USCAP website several weeks before the annual meeting, and the answers, complete text, references, etc are placed on our website the next morning after the Specialty Conference for all throughout the world to enjoy. Additional activities of the Academy have concentrated on the partnership of our two academy journals with the most outstanding medical and science publishing group in the world--Nature Publishing Group. Many of the top scientific breakthroughs of the 20th Century were first reported in the journal - Nature (it is the world's foremost weekly scientific journal by impact factor). Nature Publishing Group (NPG) publishes over 30 high profile society-owned or affiliated journals and 7-8 of the top 20 in the world in impact factor. Both of our Academy's journals now offer 2 pages of free color per published article, rapid advance online publication available 6 weeks after manuscript acceptance, increased international exposure, electronic table of content alerts delivered directly to your inbox highlighting new content each month, online submission of manuscripts and tracking, and reference cross-linking via CrossRef and MEDLINE. Powered by Naturejobs, the Career and Recruitment division of the journal Nature, Pathologyjobs provides recruiters with unique vehicles to advertise. Their Nature website is outstanding with free abstracts of all articles, integrated searches, online archives of all full-text articles from 2000 available through a personal or institutional subscription, and author index-which searches authors names across all available articles. This is a very powerful force in research and education for our members to utilize. In addition, the scientific abstracts for the past four years are now online and searchable. (Please see our USCAP and the Nature websites). By action of Council, the USCAP instituted a Strategic Planning Initiative in 2003-2004 to look at the future of pathology and The Academy. Summer retreats (actually advances) directed by Dr. Jeffrey Myers have continued, and implementation of these educational goals and strategies are now underway. For the last two years, the Academy rolled out a number of new initiatives for our members including: Several programs for pathologists-in-training were instituted-- including the Fellowship Fair with 50 institutions scheduled to appear to discuss hundreds of fellowships; the new evening Specialty Conference just for house staff/fellows; and the House Staff Hospitality Room where Academy and Pathology leaders from throughout North America were present to talk with the house staff. The USCAP's annual summer pathology review course and update - Diagnostic Pathology, with its fourteen outstanding faculty will be held in Bar Harbor, Maine at the Harborside Hotel & Marina. It is Directed by Drs. Greg Fuller and Stuart Schnitt. (See www.uscap.org for complete schedule). Last years course (05) came with a 1100 page handout and a 3800 image CD-ROM! This was the second year for the USCAP Winter (January) Course entitled "Diagnostic Cytopathology" under the initiation, leadership and direction of Dr. Celeste Powers (Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond). This 2 l/2 day weekend intense and advanced course was held at the Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa, California. The 700 plus page handout and the extensive CD (with over a thousand images) were very well received. We will be doing another winter Diagnostic Cytopathology course next year in January 2007 probably to be held in the Southeast or Southern Florida. A new educational initiative of the USCAP is Practical Pathology Seminars under the direction of Dr. John Goldblum. It will be held from March 9-14, 2006 at the Amelia Island Plantation, Florida. Seven short courses will be given on topics including: breast, GI, GYN, heme, endocrine and soft tissue tumors by an outstanding faculty of 14. Next year's annual USCAP meeting will be held in San Diego, from March 24-30, 2007. The Long Course will be directed by Drs. Marc Ladanyi and Allen Gown entitled " Targeted Therapy of Cancer: New Roles for Pathologists". There will be an extensive handout/syllabus and a CD with a great many images. There are several additions to our USCAP Committees: Four new members of the Education Committee (under the Direction of Dr. Jeffrey Myers ) are: Julia Iezonni (Univ. Virginia), Jennifer Hunt (Cleveland Clinic), John Sinard (Yale), and Adam Bagg (Univ. Penn). Last year, by action of our Long Term Strategic Planning Initiatives under Dr. Jeffrey Myers, we added two Junior Members to the USCAP Education Committee: Drs. Sigrid Wayne ( Univ. Iowa) and Michael Bennett ( Brigham & Women's Hospital). Dr. Victor Reuter (Memorial Sloan-Kettering) is by vote of the membership the new Vice-President of the Academy, and Dr. Christopher Crum (Brigham & Women’s/Boston) is President-Elect. The newly elected (by the Academy membership) Council members are: Drs. Mary Kay Washington (Vanderbilt), Phyllis Huettner (Washington Univ) and Peter Humphrey (Washington Univ). Dr. Jack Strong (LSU) heads the Finance Committee and our newest member is Dr. Brian West. The Publications Committee is chaired by Dr. Allen Gown with Drs. Fred Gorstein and Robert Colvin as our newest members. The newest members of the Young Investigator Committee are Drs. Greg Fuller, Cheryl Coffin, and Ralph Hruban. New Members of the Castleman Award Committee include: Drs. Mahul Amin and Mark Rubin. New members of the Vogel Award Committee are Drs.Christina Isacson and Peter Burger. All of the members of the various USCAP Committees are noted on our website (www.uscap.org). The new at-large member of the Nominating Committee (under the Direction of Dr. Sylvia Asa) is Allen Tucker. If you have nominations for Council (or any available committee position) please let the central Augusta office know (fsilva@uscap.org). Please check the USCAP Website (www.uscap.org) for an immense number of educational materials which are free. Approximately four year's worth of evening Specialty Conferences and Companion Society's materials are up as well as dozens of excellent, ended Short Courses and available to anyone who wishes to utilize them. In addition, as noted before, four successive years of our scientific abstracts are now online and searchable, and can be downloaded, as well as many Short Courses. That's over 4600 searchable scientific abstracts! We also have a Table of Contents by 19 organ systems/subspecialties of our thousands of educational entries/modules for all to have for free. Our USCAP Website continues to have record-setting hits with over 4.3 million hits in January 2006 from over 17,600 pathologists from throughout the world with over 500,000 total page views that month. In a recent study of worldwide traffic to our website, we learned that pathologists from over 63 countries outside of the US and Canada are partaking of these free educational offerings. The USCAP is happy to provide this free altruistic service for pathologists throughout the world. Go to: www.uscap.org for the largest eBook in the history of pathology, for free. At present the USCAP membership is in excess of 10,000 pathologists; over 2100 of those are Junior Members. We continue to grow and be vibrant. It is clear that our colleagues in pathology are a very dedicated and professional lot. We are proud to be associated with them. Thanks for all your support for all those we serve--our patients, our physicians and our students. Hope to see you in Amelia Island, Florida, and Bar Harbor, Maine, and San Diego, California.
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