From the President’s Desk
November 2023—For 100 years, pathologists have been called “the doctor’s doctor.” We have traditionally done our work in the background, interacting mostly with other physicians and not visible to or known by patients.
Webinars and Sponsored Roundtables — Register Now
Tuesday, November 3, 2026, 1 PM-2 PM ET
Hear an expert discuss the challenges of detecting NRG1 fusions and how RNA-based testing can support more comprehensive fusion identification in clinical practice.
Webinar presenter Benjamin Weinberg, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Attending Physician
specializing in gastrointestinal medical oncology
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. The webinar is made possible by a special educational grant from Diaceutics.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 1 PM-2 PM ET
Join us for a session to help improve diagnostic accuracy in your practice when scoring HER2 IHC 0 with faint, incomplete membrane staining in ≤10% of tumor cells vs IHC 0 with no membrane staining detected in patients with mBC.
Webinar presenter Jeffrey Gregg, MD, University of Nevada
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. This program is being sponsored by Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. and AstraZeneca. The speaker is being compensated for the presentation. The program is not CME accredited and may not be used for CME accreditation.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Monday, November 16, 2026, 12:30 PM-2 PM ET
Hear experts discuss a multidisciplinary approach to oncopathology for HER2
assessments for solid tumors in the absence of a companion diagnostic.
Webinar presenters Funda Meric-Bernstam, MD, Chair, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics Medical Director, Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, and Emina E. Torlakovic, MD, PhD, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Canadian Biomarker Quality Assurance, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and Carol Cheung, MD, PhD, JD, FRCPC, Deputy Director, Canadian Biomarker Quality, Assurance—Programme canadien d’assurance de la qualité des biomarqueurs
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. This program is being sponsored by Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. and AstraZeneca. The speaker is being compensated for the presentation. The program is not CME accredited and may not be used for CME accreditation.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Wednesday, December 9, 2026, 12 PM-1 PM ET
Hear an expert pathologist discuss the role of HER2 IHC testing and scoring in solid tumors including endometrial, ovarian, cervical, bladder, non-small cell lung, colorectal, and biliary cancers
Webinar presenter Michelle Shiller, DO, MSPT, Baylor Sammons Cancer Center; Fulgent Genetics; Texas Cancer Interception Institute
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. This program is intended for US healthcare professionals. This program is being sponsored by AstraZeneca. The speaker is being compensated for the presentation. The program is not CME accredited and may not be used for CME accreditation.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Subspecialties
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Columns
Clinical pathology selected abstracts
November 2023—Among the many reasons unnecessary laboratory tests are ordered in a hospital are preselected orders on order sets, clinician habits, and trainee concerns. Laboratory tests are among the highest volume procedures performed in inpatient hospital care. Excessive use of these tests can lead to patient discomfort as a result of unnecessary phlebotomy and contribute to iatrogenic anemia and increased risk of bloodstream infections. It can also contribute to the rising cost of medical care. Many laboratory stewardship programs have been developed to improve how clinicians order and use lab tests.
Anatomic pathology selected abstracts
November 2023—Claudin-4 is a sensitive and specific marker for carcinoma in effusion cytology. The authors examined the diagnostic use of claudin-4 versus MOC-31 and Ber-EP4 by comparing their sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value in differentiating carcinoma from mesothelioma and benign/mesothelial hyperplasia in effusion specimens. They conducted a retrospective study on a cohort of 229 cytology specimens, including 211 effusion fluid and 18 fine-needle aspiration specimens. The cytologic categories included 134 carcinoma, 28 mesothelioma, 46 indefinite (suspicious and atypical), and 21 benign.
Molecular pathology selected abstracts
November 2023—Dilated cardiomyopathy is characterized by dilation and weakening of one or both ventricles combined with impaired contractility. Although several external etiologies are associated with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a familial form (comprising about half the known cases of DCM) has symptoms that tend to arise in mid-adulthood. Despite the genetic nature of the familial form, little is known about the genetic profile of the disease. Black patients have an increased familial risk of DCM and often have a worse prognosis. The authors conducted a study in which they used genomic ancestry to compare the rare variant genetic architecture of DCM within a diverse patient population.
Q&A column
November 2023
Q. A molecular laboratory received an order from an oncologist for next-generation sequencing testing. The patient’s tissue sample was in the custody of a different laboratory, which has a policy requiring patient consent to release materials for reference lab testing.
The oncologist planned to obtain consent from the patient during a scheduled appointment, but the patient’s condition unexpectedly worsened and the patient could no longer travel for the appointment. Neither the custodial laboratory nor the treating health system have mechanisms for electronic consent.
As a result of the lack of options for obtaining consent remotely and the custodial laboratory’s stringent consent policy, potentially life-altering NGS testing was delayed for more than a month. Is this restrictive approach to releasing patient material for reference laboratory testing supported by CAP guidelines? Read answer.
Q. Is it acceptable to perform weak D testing on a newborn who has an RhD-negative blood type and a positive direct antiglobulin test? We know a positive DAT might cause false-positive results on an Rh test, but can it cause false-negative results? Read answer.
Newsbytes
November 2023—“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas,” according to Linus Pauling, a chemist and chemical engineer who, among other accomplishments, helped create a form of synthetic plasma. But when there is no structure in place to nurture those ideas, the result can be “a lot of people focused in a lot of different directions,” says Sky Soom, innovation analyst with Sonora Quest Laboratories.
Put It on the Board
November 2023—Roche announced last month the U.S. launch of its Cobas Connection Modules (CCM) Vertical, the elevator and overhead components of its fully automated and modular CCM system to help low-, mid-, and high-volume laboratories optimize space, productivity, and patient care.
From the President’s Desk
October 2023—In my long career, I’ve met a lot of pathologists. The military pathologist. The private practice pathologist who drives 75 miles each way to serve patients at a small rural hospital. The academic pathologist frantically writing a research grant proposal after a full day of clinical service. The lab director struggling to keep up with a rapidly growing specimen volume.
Clinical pathology selected abstracts
October 2023—Several large randomized controlled trials have shown the safety of tolerating hemoglobin levels as low as 7 g/dL in critically ill hemodynamically stable children. These trials have led to recent guidelines advocating for restrictive transfusion therapy, which is significantly changing practices in pediatric critical care.
Anatomic pathology selected abstracts
October 2023—Special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 2, or SATB2, induces local chromatin loops to facilitate transcription. SATB2 immunostaining is commonly used as a marker for colorectal adenocarcinoma and osteosarcoma. The authors conducted a study to better understand the prevalence and diagnostic value of SATB2 expression in cancer by analyzing a comprehensive set of human tumors. SATB2 expression was analyzed in 15,012 tissue samples from 120 tumor types and subtypes and 608 samples from 76 nonneoplastic tissue types using IHC in a tissue microarray format. SATB2 positivity was found in 89 of the 120 (74 percent) tumor types—59 of the 120 (49 percent) had at least one moderately positive tumor and 38 of the 120 (32 percent) had at least one strongly positive tumor.