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 REPORT OF THE 93RD ANNUAL MEETING OF THE   The General Registration of the meeting was third in the all-time USCAP attendance (Chicago '02 and San Francisco '99 had topped the charts with 3194 and 3172 registrants, respectfully). These attendance figures makes the annual meeting of the Academy the largest gathering by far of physician-pathologists in the world. Almost 20% of the registrants/attendees at the Vancouver meeting were from international countries outside of the US and Canada. The countries (and the number of international visitors from each country) included: Spain (54), United Kingdom (51), Japan (48), Italy (45), Mexico (44), France (38), Australia (35), Ireland (32), Brazil (27), Korea (26), Germany (25), Taiwan (20), Netherlands (18), Switzerland (17), Argentina (12), Hong Kong (11), Holland (11), Greece (10), Portugal (9), Turkey (9), and from 1-8 pathologists from 32 other countries. Thus in toto, 617 international visitors from approximately 54 countries outside of the USA and Canada were in attendance. This was a 10% increase in international registrants compared to last years meeting. Of the 3091 general registrants, 1690 were Regular, Sustaining or Emeritus members and 564 were Junior Members (for a total of 2254 or 73% of those attending). There were 333 pathologists in practice who were not members and 289 residents/fellows who were not members (yet). Thus there were a total of 853 residents/fellows at our meeting not counting our house-staff monitors and medical students--16 of each group; thus the total number was 885 house staff/students. The percentage of house staff attending the meeting who are members of the Academy vs./ those house staff not members are for the past four years - 41% , 69%, 67%, 66% respectively. This probably relates to the effective recruitment we have had of pathology house staff/fellows/pathologists-in-training in the last 4 ˝ years. In July 1999 we had 520 Junior Members; in the following four and a half years we recruited over 2600 additional Junior Members. Dr. Virginia LiVolsi (U.Penn)served a distinguished and active term as President of the USCAP. She turned over the gavel and the Presidency to Dr. Ricardo Lloyd (Mayo) as the new President of the Academy. 2207 scientific abstracts were submitted for evaluation (over 98% submitted electronically, see below), topping the last two year's all-time record of submitted abstracts by over 200 (10% increase this year). The quality of the submitted abstracts remains very high. 1552 were accepted after "blind" peer review (70.3% 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 booked 5-6 years in advance of the meeting). 1272 abstracts were presented in the poster sessions and 280 as platform sessions. We try to accommodate as many quality platform sessions as space allows. Abstracts were submitted from throughout the world (from at least 50 countries and 450 academic medical centers and institutions). This was the third year for the USCAP to have electronic submission of our scientific abstracts (in conjunction with Marathon, Inc). The submitting pathologist helped share the increased cost of this electronic submission-$25/abstract. These scientific abstracts are now online, searchable by topic, disease, word, technique, author, institution, etc. Actually, the last three years of scientific abstracts (over 4500) are now searchable. As noted before, over 880 pathologists-in-training and students attended the various portions of the meeting. Almost 40% of all accepted scientific abstracts had a first author a pathologist-in-training. Four hundred and seven Stowell-Orbison Abstracts were submitted (the highest in Academy history and also the largest "jump" (increase) in numbers from one year to the next, in Academy history: 35% increase this year) from throughout the world for the prestigious award. 212 were accepted for the Stowell-Orbison competition, and an additional 79 were accepted as regular abstracts. The "scores" for the accepted Stowell-Orbisons were actually 0.25 higher than the scores for the "regular" abstracts accepted for presentation (i.e, Non-Stowell-0rbison). 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: Residual Tumor Status Predicts Long-Term Survival in Esophageal Cancer Following Preoperative Chemoradiation and Surgery (462). LR Chirieac, SG Swisher, JA Ajani, RR Komaki, AM Correa, J Roth, A Rashid, SR Hamilton, T-T Wu. MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. Pulmonary Pathology of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Toronto (10). DM Hwang, DW Chamberlain, SM Poutanen, SL Asa, JW Butany. University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Use of Serum Proteomic Patterns to Diagnose Acute Graft Versus Host Disease (1074). JK Killian, DH Geho, JT Daniels, VA Fusaro, S Ross, V Espina, EF Petricoin, III, LA Liotta, RW Childs, KP Rosenblatt. Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration/National Institutes of Health Clinical Proteomics Program, Bethesda, MD; UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX. Utilization of Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase 1B and Insulin Receptor Immunoperoxidase Stains to Differentiate Between Alcoholic and Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (1309). SO Sanderson, TC Smyrk. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN The recipients of the Certificates of Merit are: EMSY Amplification Identifies a Subset of Node Negative Breast Cancers Associated with a Poor Prognosis (88). L Brown, M Cheang, T Nielson, B Gilks, J Ragaz, S Chia, L Hughes-Davies, C Caldas, D Huntsman. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada; University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. P16INK4a Immunocytochemistry in Liquid-Based Cervicovaginal Cytology Specimens Interpreted as ASC-H (286). I Jovanovic, M Dieterich, MA Doyle, C Gatbunton, CD Sturgis. Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston, IL Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL. Application of Real-Time Quantitative PCR to Determine the Impact of Donor t(14;18) Cells in the Corresponding Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation Recipients with Follicular Lymphoma (FL) (1091). DK McGregor, CA Keever-Taylor, DH Vesole, DH Farkas, C-C Chang. Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI. Identification of New Markers in Ovarian Cancer with Potential Use in Diagnosis and Treatment (875). J-M Mosquera, C Torres-Cabala, C Chian-Garcia, C Otis, D Roberts, MJ Merino. National Cancer Institute - NIH, Bethesda, MD. The ADASP/USCAP Autopsy Award winning abstract was: Pulmonary Pathology of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Toronto (10). DM Hwang, DW Chamberlain, SM Poutanen, SL Asa, JW Butany. University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. The ADASP/USCAP Surgical Pathology Award was: Support for Hypermethylation as a Method of Carcinogenesis in the Hyperplastic Polyp-Serrated Adenoma-Adenocarcinoma Pathway (524). KY Oh, M Redston, K Batts, JR Goldblum, RD Odze. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA; Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, MN; Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH. 861 registrants attended the Long Course directed by Drs. Robert H. Young (Mass General/Harvard ) and Thomas M. Ulbright (Indiana University). 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 (over 220 pages in length) and initiated for the first time this year, this Long Course has accompanying it a 600 image CD. This Long Course will be published in the next year in Modern Pathology.(Last year's Long Course on Prostate Cancer is in the March 04 issue of Modern Pathology). Fifty-eight half-day Short Courses were presented and very well attended (with a total registration of Short Courses taken being 4568--that is the number of courses attended times the number of attendees at these sessions; an overall average of 80 pathologists/per Short Course offering). This is the second largest attendance at the Academy's Short Courses in our history (with Chicago topping the charts at 4737). We believe that by the 05 annual meeting, over half of our Short Courses will 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) filled attracting 183 registrants on Thursday, and the ongoing Advanced Molecular Pathology course headed by (Drs. Frederic Barr, Univ. of Pennsylvania, and Matthijs Van de Rijn, Stanford, California) held on Friday attracted 103 registrants. Twenty-two Companion Societies presented their educational endeavors on Saturday night and Sunday. The total registrations (number of attendees times the number of Companion Societies) was 2167 (second in numbers only to San Francisco's '99 meeting of 2230). The International Society of Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology was first presented this year, and the American Society for Clinical Pathology Companion was just approved as the newest Companion Society under the Guidelines for Companion Societies as established by the USCAP Council. Thus next year in San Antonio there will be a total of 23 Companion Societies. For the past two years all of the Companion Societies and evening Specialty Conferences' handouts/syllabus have been placed on our website. (Click on 'Educational Materials' in the top banner). The Nathan Kaufman Timely Topic Lecture was to be given by Dr. David Walker (University of Texas Medical Branch/Galveston) entitled: "Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases: A Critical Opportunity for Pathology in the Era of Bioterrorism and Emerging Infections". His lecture was elegant, timely, and very well received by the appreciative audience of over 1000 pathologists. Dr.J. Aidan Carney (Mayo), presented the Maude Abbott Lecture. His topic was "The Complex of Spotty Pigmentation, Myxomas, Endocrine Over activity and Schwannomas (Carney complex): Discover to Gene". This elegant lecture was also attended by over 1000 pathologists. Two Distinguished Pathologists Awards were presented this year to individuals in recognition of distinguished service in the development of the discipline of pathology. Drs. M. Daria Haust and Kalman T. Kovacs were recognized by the Academy membership for their major contributions to pathology over the years. Please click on their names in the previous sentence for biosketches of these two great pathologists. One President's Award was presented this year to a pathologists in recognition of major contributions to the profession of pathology. Dr. David Hardwick, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. The F.K. Mostofi Distinguished Service Award went to Dr. Donald Antonioli, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, for his major contributions to the Academy over the years. The Young Investigator Award was presented to Dr. Mark A. Rubin, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA for his career- work on the distinguishing latent from aggressive prostate cancer (Pca). The recipient of the Castleman Award (for the best published paper in the field of human pathology ) was Dr. Anirban Maitra, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, for his paper entitled "Widespread Requirement for Hedgehog Ligand Stimulation in Growth of Digestive Tract Tumours" published in Nature in 2003 (425:846-51, 2003). It must be noted that again the number of applications for this prestigious award were numerous, with many outstanding individuals having papers published in journals such as Nature, Cell, PNAS, AJP, JNCI, etc). The F. Stephen Vogel Award (for the most outstanding paper published in an Academy journal by a pathologist-in-training ) went to Dr. Robert T. Pu, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, for his paper "Methylation Profiling of Benign and Malignant Breast Lesions and Its Application to Cytopathology" in Modern Pathology (16(11):1095-1101, 2003). The 16 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. The handouts at these meetings continue to be highly sought-after. All of the evening Specialty Conferences are online on the Academy's website. For the past two years the unknowns (i.e., clinical history and representative histologic images) are placed on our USCAP website weeks before the annual meeting, and the answers, complete text, references, etc are placed on our website the last day of our annual meeting (Friday AM) 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. Their Nature website is outstanding. This is a very powerful force in research and education for our members to utilize. In addition, the scientific abstracts for the past three 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 to look at the future of pathology and The Academy. Summer retreats (actually advances) were held and directed by Drs. David Hardwick (BroadmoreSix), and Jeffrey Myers (the Augusta 12). Implementation of these strategic goals and strategies are now underway. This year in Vancouver, the Academy rolled out a number of new initiatives for our members including: A free Internet Café; additional Tour Guides on how to get around at our busy annual meeting; recognition of pathology house staff/fellows; faculty appreciation endeavors; and other items for our attendees. Of course, this was our Academy's first annual meeting in Vancouver (a city which just received the award "Best City to Live In the World"). Kudos much go to the wonderful people of Vancouver who helped make this one of the best, most memorable meetings in Academy history. Except for one or two days of light rain, the weather was terrific. The USCAP's annual summer pathology review course and update - Diagnostic Pathology, with its fourteen outstanding faculty will be held in Banff, Alberta, Canada from July 25-30, 2004. It is Directed by Drs. Sylvia Asa and Greg Fuller. (Click here for complete schedule). Last years course (03) came with a 900+page handout and a 3000 image CD-ROM! This year's handout/CD will be better! Next year's annual USCAP meeting will be held in San Antonio, Texas from February 26-March 4, 2005. The Long Course will be directed by Drs. Bruce Smoller (U.Arkansas) and A. Neil Crowson (Regional Medical Laboratory/Tulsa & Univ. of Oklahoma) and will be on "Neoplastic Dermatopathology". 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: Drs.Mary Richardson ( MUSC/Charleston), Susan Maygarden (Univ. N.Carolina), Christina Isacson (Virginia Mason/Seattle), and Dennis O'Malley (Indiana Univ. ). The newly elected (by the Academy membership) Council members are: Celeste Powers (Med. Coll.Virginia/Richmond), Jonathan Epstein (Johns Hopkins), and Richard Zarbo (Henry Ford/Case Western). Dr. Henry Appelman (U.Michigan) is by vote of the membership the new Vice-President of the Academy, and Dr. Sylvia Asa (U.Toronto) is President-Elect. Dr. Jack Strong (LSU) once again takes the reigns of the Finance Committee. The Publications Committee will be chaired by Dr. Allen Gown (PhenoPath, Seattle). All of the members of the various USCAP Committees are noted on this website. The new at-large member of the Nominating Committee (under the Direction of Dr. Virginia LiVolsi) is Donald Antonioli (Beth Israel Deaconess/Boston) 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, under 'Educational Materials' in the top banner, for an immense number of educational materials which are free. Approximately two year's worth of evening Specialty Conferences and Companion Society's materials are up and available to anyone who wishes to utilize them. In addition, as noted before, our scientific abstracts (2002, 2003, 2004) are now online and searchable, and can be downloaded, as well as many Short Courses. That's over 80 major handouts from our educational courses, in addition to over 4500 searchable scientific abstracts! Dr. David Hardwick, Chair of the Finance Committee announced at the 2004 Business Meeting (and to widespread appreciation), that despite the many new initiatives of the Academy, there would be no increase in the cost of the Academy's dues this year. At present the USCAP membership is in excess of 9400 pathologists. We continue to grow and be vibrant. At our annual meeting in Vancouver, the Council of the Academy confirmed the admission of 884 new members this year (237 Regular Members and 647 Junior Members); this too is an all-time record. 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. See you in Banff and San Antonio.
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