2020 Issues, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—Human endeavors are bursting with unintended consequences. Kudzu comes to mind. Smokestacks. Some even point fingers at Smokey Bear. John Greden, MD, offers an example of his own, one with renewed relevance in pharmacogenomics. It’s a subject he’s studied closely, including as principal investigator of the GUIDED trial Researchers looked at whether offering clinicians access to a pharmacogenomics test report would improve treatment for more than 1,100 patients with a major depressive disorder who had already failed to respond to an average of 3.5 antidepressant trials.
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2020 Issues, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—Cost-effectiveness analysis of health care diagnosis and treatment, unfortunately connoting quotas and spartan budgets, may not have the best reputation among the general public.
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2020 Issues, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—In vivo hemolysis accounts for less than two percent of cases of hemolysis, but don’t assume all hemolysis is in vitro. That was the point of one of the patient cases presented at CAP19 in a session on curbside consults in clinical pathology.
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2020 Issues, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—New microfluidic and nanotechnologies could take liquid biopsy to the next level as a tool to gauge cancer progression and treatment response.
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2020 Issues, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—Herbert Derman, MD, CAP president from 1983 to 1985, died Dec. 18, 2019, seeking a remedy to his chronic heart failure. Dr. Derman was CAP vice president from 1981 to 1983 and a member of the Board of Governors from 1971 to 1980. He was the chair and a member of several CAP councils, committees, and commissions. Dr. Derman was named CAP Pathologist of the Year in 1986. He received the ASCP/CAP Pathology Continuing Medical Education award in 1974 and 1978 and the ASCP/CAP Joint Distinguished Service award in 1993.
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2020 Issues, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—At Massachusetts General Hospital, machine learning is being used in the laboratories to build next-level clinical decision support, and in the latest phase, it’s undergoing trial for use in predicting laboratory results. “I think this is the new paradigm for cost-effective laboratory medicine. This is an important way we’re going to change how we do business,” says Anand Dighe, MD, PhD, who spoke about machine learning techniques for labs during a CAP19 presentation last fall and in a recent interview with CAP TODAY.
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2020 Issues, AMP Case Reports, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders characterized by the proliferation of one or more of the myeloid lineages. Philadelphia chromosome-negative classical MPNs include polycythemia vera (PV), primary myelofibrosis (PMF), and essential thrombocythemia (ET).
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2020 Issues, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—Microfluidic assays are being used to isolate circulating leukemia cells and manage minimal residual disease in some patients with acute myeloid leukemia and B-cell/T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. “There is a lot of popularity in liquid biopsies, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” said Steven A. Soper, PhD, foundation distinguished professor of chemistry, mechanical engineering, and bioengineering at the University of Kansas. Dr. Soper, who also holds a teaching appointment at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in Ulsan, South Korea, was a co-presenter with Sunitha Nagrath, PhD (see story, page 3), at the 2019 AMP annual meeting.
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2020 Issues, ARTICLES, February 2020
February 2020—Middleware, transmitting and consuming reports, and artificial intelligence are just some of what AP LIS roundtable panelists talked about in December with CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle. Members of the panel were pathologists Monica de Baca, MD, and Jeffrey Prichard, DO, Rick Callahan of NovoPath, David Liberman, MD, of Computer Trust, and Chad Meyers of Sunquest. Here is what they said.
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2020 Issues, February 2020, In Every Issue
Roche, Illumina partner to broaden access to genomic testing
February 2020—Roche has entered into a 15-year, nonexclusive partnership with Illumina to broaden the adoption of distributable next-generation-sequencing–based testing in oncology. The agreement brings together the capabilities of both companies to broaden adoption of NGS in cancer care. As part of the agreement, Illumina will grant Roche rights to develop and distribute in vitro diagnostic tests on Illumina’s NextSeq 550Dx system and on its future portfolio of diagnostic sequencing systems. Roche will in turn collaborate with Illumina to complement Illumina’s comprehensive pan-cancer assay TruSight Oncology 500 with new companion diagnostic claims. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Under the IVD terms of the agreement, Roche will develop, manufacture, and commercialize Avenio IVD tests for tissue and blood for use on Illumina’s NextSeq 550Dx. Illumina will continue to sell the NextSeq 550Dx systems and core sequencing consumables.
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2020 Issues, February 2020, In Every Issue, Q&A column
Q. Does the CAP have recommendations regarding diagnostic criteria for evaluating HER2 in colorectal carcinoma? Read answer.
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2020 Issues, February 2020, In Every Issue
February 2020—Regular readers of CAP TODAY know I believe that it is extremely important for CAP members to become politically active. The upcoming Pathologists Leadership Summit, which will take place May 2–5 in Washington, DC, will give you the opportunity to do so. If you haven’t registered already, I encourage you to consider attending this special event. The Pathologists Leadership Summit is new for the CAP. It is replacing our annual policy meeting focused on government advocacy.
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2020 Issues, February 2020, In Every Issue
Drone delivery of lab samples: from progress at WakeMed to interest elsewhere
February 2020—After nearly a year of a drone buzzing through the air to deliver specimens from the Raleigh Medical Park surgery center to the laboratory at the flagship Raleigh campus of WakeMed Health and Hospitals a quarter-mile away, WakeMed is looking to expand its drone program.
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2020 Issues, February 2020, In Every Issue
Blood utilization and transfusion reactions in pediatric patients transfused with platelets
February 2020—Even with advances in donor screening and infectious disease testing, the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections continues to be a concern. The FDA has approved a pathogen-reduction system for single-donor platelets, called Intercept Blood System (Cerus Corp.), to treat thrombocytopenic adult and pediatric patients.
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2020 Issues, February 2020, In Every Issue
DNAJB1-PRKACA fusions in fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma
February 2020—Recently discovered
DNAJB1-PRKACA oncogenic fusions have been considered diagnostic for fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma. The authors conducted a study in which they described six pancreatobiliary neoplasms with
PRKACA fusions, five of which harbored the
DNAJB1-PRKACA fusion.
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2020 Issues, February 2020, In Every Issue
Overall survival rates for lung cancer patients receiving osimertinib
Guidelines recommend testing patients with advanced or metastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for epidermal growth factor receptor (
EGFR) alterations because targeted treatment with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) is available for patients with
EGFR exon 19 deletions or L858R point mutations. Osimertinib is a third-generation, irreversible, oral EGFR-TKI that selectively inhibits EGFR-TKI–sensitizing and
EGFR p.Thr790Met-resistance mutations.
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CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
