2024 Annual Meeting Abstract Submissions

All abstracts submitted to the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting must meet the eligibility requirements below:

• Scientific material must be original.
• Abstracts are not eligible for consideration if the abstract has been presented at a major national or international meeting prior to the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting, March 23-28, 2024.
• Abstracts cannot be previously published, online or in print, prior to the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting, March 23-28, 2024.
• If the accepted abstract is also submitted as a manuscript for publication prior to the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting, the authors are responsible for coordinating with the journal to determine a publication date that abides by USCAP’s embargo policy. Abstracts related to manuscripts that are published online or in print before the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting, March 23-28, 2024, must be withdrawn. Please notify the Academy via e-mail at [email protected].
  • If authors choose to submit a manuscript to Modern Pathology or Laboratory Investigation prior to the abstract presentation at the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting, March 23-28, 2024, they will need to indicate this on the submission form and in the cover letter for the journal submission. USCAP has an agreement with these journals to withhold approved manuscripts from publication until the embargo is lifted.
• All abstracts must follow USCAP’s embargo policy. Any abstract found to be presented or published prior to the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting, March 23-28, 2024 will be removed from the program.
• USCAP will examine all abstracts with anti-plagiarism software to verify the originality of the work. Flagged abstracts will be manually reviewed and those that represent only an incremental advance or lack sufficient novelty compared with published abstracts will be rejected.

Author Eligibility

• Individuals may submit as many abstracts as they wish; however, no more than three abstracts will be accepted from any first author. If more than three first-author abstracts are submitted, the lowest scoring abstracts will be immediately rejected.
• Individuals may serve as a coauthor on an unlimited number of abstracts.

 Contact Information

All authors must provide a full name, academic degree(s), institution, address (including city, state, and country), and email address. Only the first author and primary contact will receive future correspondence from USCAP regarding the status of the abstract.

To ensure that all authors are able to receive email correspondence from USCAP, please add the following domain to your email software.

• xcdsystem.com

Co-Authors

• The full name, institution, city, state, country, and email is required for each co-author.
• Upon entry of an author, an automatic email will be sent from the system requesting the author login and complete a disclosure. Authors can complete their disclosures at any point after being added to the system, up to the closure of the submission website on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time/11:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time.
• First authors who submit abstracts for consideration as platform presentations are responsible for ensuring that all authors complete their disclosure. Failure to complete disclosures prior to the submission deadline (Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time) will result in removal of the abstract from consideration for a platform presentation and automatically default to the “poster-only” category.
• Authors who do not receive email communications from USCAP can simply login to the system, scroll down to locate the abstract, and select the Disclosures button. A red Disclosures button indicates that the disclosure(s) is incomplete.

Abstract Title

• The abstract title must be in English.
• The abstract title must be in Title Case.
  • Capitalize the first word of the title.
  • Capital letters should be used for all nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and subordinate conjunctions (e.g. because, although). All other words, including articles, coordinate conjunctions (e.g. and, or, but), and prepositions should be lowercase.
  • Do use lowercase and uppercase letters in instances when they have specific meanings (e.g. mCEA, HER2).
• Do not include a period at the end of the title.
• The maximum length of the abstract title is 40 words.

EXAMPLE

Correct: Utility of p53 and mCEA Immunostaining in Biliary Cytology Specimens
Incorrect: Utility of p53 and mcea Immunostaining in biliary cytology specimens.

Abstract Content

• The abstract content must be in English.
• The maximum length of the abstract is 2,500 characters (including spaces). This includes the background, design, results, and conclusion. Abstracts that do not fit in the defined space are automatically truncated. Authors should review their final abstracts as they appear on the website prior to submission. There is no limit on the number of authors. Authors and their affiliations do not count toward the character count of the abstract.
• The abstract should be divided into the following sections: Background, Design, Results, and Conclusion. The submission program allows authors to enter information for each of these sections and displays the headers on the final abstract form in this manner. These headings appear automatically – do not type them in. Abstracts are blinded for review. Please do not include identifying information in the body of the abstract (e.g., institutional names, specific departmental or division names, or institutional assays).
• Tables and figures are permitted in addition to text allotments described above. Guidelines are below:
  • Figures
    • Maximum of 2 figures per abstract submission
    • Width – 6 inches
    • Height – no more than 4 inches
    • Maximum file size cannot exceed 3MB
    • Images must be high resolution, 300 DPI, RGB
    • Only jpg (jpeg) or png formats are allowed
    • Patient Photos
      Do not submit patient photos unless the patient has granted permission. Documentation of permission must be provided to USCAP prior to the abstract submission. Failure to provide documentation of permission will lead to the removal of the photograph from the online abstract and publication. Submit documentation to [email protected]. Include the abstract ID and title in the email. All photos must be deidentified.
    • Device Photos
      Do not submit device photos. All photos of devices will be removed from the online abstract and publication.
    • Uploaded figures can be replaced by uploading a different file to the same location. They can also be deleted by selecting the Delete Figure button. NOTE: The Delete Figure button will only appear after the abstract has been saved.
  • Table
    • Maximum of 1 table per abstract submission. Text in the table will not deduct from the character count.
    • Width – 6 inches
    • Height – no more than 9 inches
    • Font – sans serif, no less than 5pt
• Standard abbreviations are acceptable. A special abbreviation should be placed in parentheses after the first appearance of the full word for which it stands. Greek and mathematical symbols are provided in the character map within the program.
• Generic drug names are preferred and should be written without capital letters. If a proprietary drug name is used, the first letter should be capitalized.
• Abstracts can be edited up to the point of the submission deadline and closure of the abstract submission site on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 2:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time/11:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time. There is no final submit button.
• Abstract revisions cannot be made after the submission deadline. It is recommended that authors login to the system and double check the work prior to the submission deadline. Changes cannot be made after the deadline.

Presentation Type

Check Poster Only or Either Poster or Platform on the Submit Abstract page. Abstracts submitted for “Either Poster or Platform” will be assigned a final presentation type by the Abstract Assignment Committee. Assignments are based on a combination of scientific merit as determined by the blinded scoring of the abstract by at least four (4) members of the Abstract Review Board and the Committee’s opinion regarding its most effective presentation method.

Poster Presentations – There are six poster sessions over the course of three days. Posters will be on display for half days on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Authors are expected to be at their posters during the morning and afternoon breaks.

Platform Presentations – Each platform presentation is limited to fifteen (15) minutes, this includes ten (10) minutes for the presentation and five (5) minutes for questions. All platform presentations must utilize digital/electronic projection using Microsoft PowerPoint. A PowerPoint template will be provided after acceptance.

Category

Abstracts must be submitted in one of the categories listed below. See Category Descriptions for detailed information.

• Autopsy and Forensics
• Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology
• Breast Pathology
• Cardiovascular Pathology
• Career Development
• Cytopathology
• Dermatopathology
• Education
• Endocrine Pathology
• Gastrointestinal Pathology
• General Surgical Pathology
• Genitourinary Pathology (including renal tumors)
• Gynecologic and Obstetric Pathology
• Head and Neck Pathology
• Hematopathology
• Infectious Disease Pathology
• Informatics
• Liver Pathology
• Medical Renal Pathology (including renal transplantation)
• Neuropathology and Ophthalmic Pathology
• Pathology of the Pancreas, Gallbladder, Ampulla, and Extra-Hepatic Biliary Tree
• Pathobiology and Emerging Techniques
• Pediatric and Perinatal Pathology
• Pulmonary, Mediastinum, Pleura, and Peritoneum Pathology
• Quality and Patient Safety

Abstracts may be moved from the category of submission to another category by the Abstract Assignment Committee if deemed appropriate.

Awards

Stowell-Orbison Awards and Autopsy or Surgical Pathology Awards for Pathologists-in-Training

Application information must be completed online through the abstract submission system. In order to be eligible for these awards, applicants must meet all of the following requirements:

• First author must be a pathologist-in-training (resident or fellow) by the time of presentation at the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting
• Applicants can submit only one first-author abstract for award consideration
• Upload a verification of eligibility

Detailed award information is available here: https://uscap.org/stowell-orbison-awards/

Abstracts accepted for consideration of Stowell-Orbison Awards and/or the Surgical and Autopsy Pathology Awards, will be presented as posters on Monday morning of the USCAP Annual Meeting. Abstracts that are submitted for this competition, but not accepted, will automatically be considered for acceptance as a regular abstract according to subspecialty.

NEW IN 2024: Authors can submit for Either Poster or Platform. Abstracts accepted into the Stowell-Orbison Awards and/or the Surgical and Autopsy Pathology Awards session that were submitted as Either Poster or Platform will also be considered for a platform presentation. This will mean some abstracts will have both a poster and platform presentation. USCAP only accepts ONE abstract per person for consideration of a Stowell-Orbison Awards and/or the Surgical and Autopsy Pathology Awards. The first author must be a pathologist-in-training who had a major role in the study.

Autopsy and Forensics: This category includes abstracts describing pathology related to adult autopsy. It excludes abstracts describing pediatric autopsy, fetal pathology, and autopsy-related neuropathology.

Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of soft tissues and bone. It does not include abstracts describing cutaneous soft tissue tumors or mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal, genitourinary or gynecologic tracts.

Breast Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the breast. Abstracts describing mesenchymal tumors and hematopoietic disorders of the breast are included.

Cardiovascular Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the heart and blood vessels. Cardiac transplantation pathology is included.

Career Development: This category includes abstracts related, but not limited to, professional development, work life balance, mentorship, and physician burnout. Abstracts primarily focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), sustainability in the laboratory, administration and leadership are also included.

Cytopathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of all sites encountered in exfoliative or fine needle aspiration samples.

Dermatopathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the skin. Abstracts describing cutaneous mesenchymal and hematopoietic tumors are included.

Education: This category includes abstracts where the main focus is education in anatomic pathology at any level (undergraduate, postgraduate, etc). Abstracts describing innovation and application of existing platforms (e.g., social media) to pathology education are included. Topics may be related to specific organ systems or to general anatomic pathology.

Endocrine Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing diseases of the thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, adrenal glands, and paraganglia. It does not include abstracts describing disorders of the pancreas, endocrine tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, or pituitary diseases.

Gastrointestinal Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the tubular gastrointestinal tract. Abstracts describing mesenchymal tumors (e.g., gastrointestinal stromal tumor), hematopoietic tumors, and bowel transplantation pathology are included. This category excludes abstracts describing diseases of the gallbladder, pancreas, liver, ampulla, and extrahepatic biliary tree.

General Surgical Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases that are not limited to one organ system (e.g., molecular analysis of squamous cell carcinomas from different sites, or novel immunohistochemical markers that have diagnostic applications to multiple sites).

Genitourinary Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic diseases of the kidneys, as well as both neoplastic and non-neoplastic disorders of the ureters, urinary bladder, prostate, penis, and testis. This category does not include abstracts describing medical renal disease or transplantation pathology.

Gynecologic and Obstetric Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix, vagina, and vulva. Abstracts describing gynecologic mesenchymal and hematopoietic tumors are included. It also includes abstracts describing placental and obstetric pathology. It does not include abstracts describing primary peritoneal neoplasms.

Head and Neck Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the oral cavity, nasopharynx, paranasal sinuses, larynx, and salivary glands. It does not include abstracts describing cutaneous diseases of the face or disorders of the thyroid and parathyroid glands.

Hematopathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of lymph nodes, bone marrow elements, spleen, and dendritic cells. It does not include thymoma or thymic carcinoma. Abstracts describing disorders involving specific sites (e.g. skin, gastrointestinal tract, central nervous system) may be more appropriately submitted to other categories.

Infectious Disease Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing non-neoplastic diseases of an infectious etiology that affect multiple organs or organ systems. Abstracts describing disorders confined to one organ or organ system (e.g., pulmonary fungal infections) are better suited for the organ system-specific category. Similarly, those discussing pathogen-driven neoplasia are more appropriately placed in organ system-specific categories. Abstracts focused on clinical microbiology (e.g., molecular assays for pathogens performed on body fluids, transport media, mass spectrometry for pathogen identification) with no content related to anatomic pathology practice are not appropriate for this meeting.

Informatics: This category includes abstracts describing issues related to pathology information systems, digital pathology, data analysis, information technology, machine learning, and similar topics. Abstracts describing application of these techniques to pathology education or diseases of one organ and/or one organ system may be more appropriately submitted to other categories.

Liver Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the liver. Liver transplantation pathology and tumors and inflammatory conditions of the intrahepatic bile ducts are included. Disorders of the extrahepatic bile ducts and gallbladder are excluded.

Medical Renal Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing issues related to non-neoplastic renal diseases as well as transplantation pathology. It does not include abstracts describing neoplastic diseases of the kidney.

Neuropathology and Ophthalmic Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the central nervous system and its coverings, pituitary gland, and eye. Autopsy neuropathology is included. Abstracts describing myopathies and peripheral neuropathies are included.

Pathology of the Pancreas, Gallbladder, Ampulla and Extra-hepatic Bile Ducts: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the pancreas, gallbladder, ampulla, and extra-hepatic bile ducts up to the hilum. Endocrine/neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas and pancreatic transplantation pathology are included.

Pathobiology and Emerging Techniques: This category includes abstracts that emphasize disease biology or describe issues related to oncogenesis and pathogenesis of non-neoplastic conditions and highlight new assays and platforms that may have diagnostic or prognostic value in the pathologic assessment of human diseases. Pan-genomic/pan-proteomic approaches and ultrastructural pathology are generally included, although abstracts describing application of these techniques to diseases of one organ or one organ system may be more appropriately submitted to other categories.

Pediatric and Perinatal Pathology: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the pediatric population, including perinatal and fetal diseases as well as pediatric, perinatal, and fetal autopsies.

Pulmonary, Mediastinum, Pleura, and Peritoneum: This category includes abstracts describing neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of the tracheobronchial tree, lungs, pleura, and mesothelial surfaces of the peritoneal cavity. It also includes thymoma, thymic carcinoma, and mediastinal germ cell tumors. It does not include lymphomas.

Quality and Patient Safety: This category includes abstracts describing the study of risk to patients in pathology as well as failure to meet standards of timeliness, report accuracy, and transfer of materials between services. It includes abstracts describing baseline data collection followed by an intervention and analysis of post-implementation data.

Abstracts may be moved from the category of submission to another category by the Abstract Assignment Committee if deemed appropriate.

USCAP has zero tolerance for any commercial bias in abstracts and the content must be presented objectively. Reviewers are instructed to reject any abstract which does not meet these criteria.

• Each author must complete an Author Disclosure Form for each abstract submitted; this can be done as soon as the author has been added to an abstract. The abstract does NOT need to be final in order to submit a disclosure.
• Upon entry of an author, an automatic email is sent from the system requesting the author login and complete a disclosure. The first author is responsible for ensuring all authors complete their disclosures.
• No abstract will be accepted for a platform presentation without completed disclosure forms from ALL authors. Authors must note any relevant relationships with companies in the event that their products and/or services are discussed in the abstract. All relationships, or absence of relationships, must be disclosed to the audience.

As an accredited provider of continuing medical education (CME) by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), USCAP complies with the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. To ensure the CME activities USCAP offers are independent and free of commercial bias, the USCAP CME Subcommittee reviews all disclosures from all authors on accepted abstracts that were submitted for platform presentation consideration. If there is not a reasonable way to resolve the conflicts of interest on an abstract, the abstract presentation preference may be changed to poster only. This decision is made by the CME Subcommittee following a thorough review of the disclosures and the abstract content.

This policy is not intended to prevent authors with commercial relationships from making a presentation. Disclosure of relevant relationships is required to help maintain objectivity and allow audience members to form their own judgments regarding the merit of material presented with the benefit of full disclosure of facts. Relationships that are not relevant to the content of the abstract need not be disclosed.

Policy on Unlabeled/Off-Label Use
USCAP has determined that disclosure of unlabeled/off-label or investigational use of commercial product(s) is informative for audiences and therefore requires this information to be disclosed to the learners at the beginning of the presentation. Uses of products discussed in this educational activity may not be the same as those indicated in product labeling approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). USCAP requires that any discussions of such “off-label” use be based on scientific research that conforms to generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, and data analysis. All references to unlabeled/off-label use of products in the abstract must be disclosed on the poster when presented.

Abstracts from Industry
If accepted, abstracts submitted by Industry-affiliated authors or institutions will be defaulted to a poster presentation. They must only display research findings. No advertising or product identification by brand name is allowed. Commercial, product, and company logos cannot be placed on posters or poster boards. Posters that contain any type of commercial promotion, as described above, will be removed from the poster hall immediately without notice to the presenter.

All posters presented by industry must include a disclosure statement.

There is a $50 non-refundable processing fee for each abstract submission. Credit card payment must be made by selecting the Payment button. Payment must be made in order to complete the submission process. The abstract submission fee does not include meeting registration. If accepted, the presenting author of the abstract must register for the 2024 USCAP Annual Meeting.

Notification of receipt will be emailed to the primary contact following the payment. NOTE: It is the responsibility of the author to contact USCAP if confirmation of abstract receipt is not received within 1 business day. USCAP will confirm receipt of the abstract or assist authors to ensure that the abstract is complete.

Deadline

Only electronic submissions of original work will be accepted. To be eligible for review:

• Submission must have been received by Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time/11:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time.
• The abstract fee must have been paid prior to the abstract deadline. If the payment is not received by the deadline, the abstract will be withdrawn.
• All authors and co-authors on abstracts submitted for platform presentation must have completed an Author Disclosure Form for each abstract. Failure to complete disclosures prior to the submission deadline will result in removal of the abstract from consideration for a platform presentation.
• In the interest of fairness, these guidelines must be respected by all potential authors.

Review Process

Abstracts that meet the submission criteria by the submission deadline will be reviewed and scored by at least four (4) members of the Abstract Review Board. Review is blinded to the author’s names and affiliations. Each reviewer assigns a score based on scientific merit, originality and overall quality of the abstract. Reviewer scores are averaged and the average score in each category determines whether the abstract is accepted for presentation or rejected. Accepted abstracts are then reviewed by the Abstract Assignment Committee to determine presentation type (platform vs poster, if applicable).

Notifications

Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to the first author and primary contact by e-mail in late October; authors will not receive any notifications by mail. A second notification specifying presentation type and further details about the presentation will be sent to the first author and primary contact of accepted abstracts in November. Authors who did not receive an e-mail by early December should login to the Abstract Submission site with the login credentials used to create the submission and select the View Final Status button.

If an abstract is accepted, the presenting author is required to register for the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting and pay the general registration fee. Online registration is available on the USCAP website in November 2023. All registrations must be completed online.

All abstracts accepted for presentation at the 2024 USCAP Annual Meeting are published in an online-only supplement of Laboratory Investigation. The supplement will be released on Monday, March 25, 2024.

The primary contact or first author may withdraw an abstract by contacting USCAP Education at [email protected] with the request. Abstracts withdrawn after January 5, 2024 will not be included in the online program but will be published in the Laboratory Investigation journal supplement.

Unless otherwise noted, all abstracts accepted for presentation at the USCAP Annual Meeting are embargoed from submission until the date and time of presentation. They cannot be presented in any national or international forum or be published (online or print) in abstract or manuscript form prior to the first day of the USCAP annual meeting. USCAP reserves the right to lift the embargo on specific abstracts that are selected for promotion prior to or during the USCAP Annual Meeting.

If the accepted abstract is also submitted as a manuscript for publication, authors are responsible for coordinating a publication date that abides by the Academy’s embargo policy. If publication occurs online or in print before the USCAP 2024 Annual Meeting, March 23-28, 2024, the abstract must be withdrawn. Please notify the Academy via e-mail at [email protected].