Up close on clonal hematopoiesis in cfDNA testing
October 2021—Clonal hematopoiesis is a significant biological phenomenon and denotes presence of mutations in bone marrow stem cells in the absence of a hematologic malignancy.
Webinars and Sponsored Roundtables — Register Now
Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 11 AM-12 PM ET
Hear experts review the biological and clinical significance of the HER2 expression continuum in breast tissue, providing a clearer understanding of how these variations might impact diagnosis, and discuss the emerging importance of documenting HER2-low and HER2-ultralow categories using a validated IHC assay.
Webinar presenters Keith Wharton, MD, PhD, Global Medical Affairs Leader–Pathology, Roche Diagnostics Solutions, and Hannah Y. Wen, MD, PhD, Director, Breast Pathology Fellowship, Associate Team Leader, Breast Pathology Team, Attending Pathologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. The webinar is made possible by a special educational grant from Roche.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 1 PM-2 PM ET
Hear an expert discuss the evolving role of PD-L1 testing in HNSCC and ovarian cancer.
Webinar presenter Georgios Deftereos, MD, Professor of Pathology, Associate Director of the Clinical Cancer Genomics Laboratory, Director of Molecular Cytopathology, University of California, San Francisco
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. The webinar is made possible by a special educational grant from Agilent.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
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
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
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Molecular or morphology? Challenges in pathologic diagnoses
October 2021—Recent molecular genetic advances have dramatically expanded diagnostic options, thus revolutionizing the diagnosis of many tumor types, especially those of soft tissue and bone. Advances in the discovery of molecular alterations underlying neoplastic pathogenesis have also provided insights into novel therapeutic targets and prognostic biomarkers. These improvements have led to the reclassification of a growing list of previously established tumor types, resulting in significant challenges for practicing pathologists, as exemplified herein.
‘Scary situation’—lab leaders on staffing and COVID
October 2021—Surge, supplies, staffing. Eighteen months into the pandemic, the story remains similar. Even where laboratory salaries have been bumped up or sign-on bonuses have been in place to strengthen the workforce, Compass Group members report little to no success. And on supplies: “Every week we cross our fingers and toes to see what arrives in the door, how to disperse that through the systems, and how to continually educate the physicians on appropriate use of that limited resource,” says Judy Lyzak, MD, MBA, of Alverno Laboratories. She and other laboratory leaders of the Compass Group met virtually Sept. 6 to share their latest. Of the confluence of problems laboratories face, one said: “I have never seen anything quite like this.”
Detecting myeloid malignancy minimal residual disease
October 2021—Detecting leukemic cells for post-treatment monitoring in normal karyotype acute myeloid leukemia is challenging, but new approaches to minimal residual disease monitoring may make it increasingly possible in the clinical laboratory, David Wu, MD, PhD, said in an AMP webinar he presented recently on myeloid malignancy minimal residual disease detection.
Panel weighs in on practices, pressures in heme labs
October 2021—Rules, slide reviews, test ordering, and provider education were part of the conversation when CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle convened a hematology-focused virtual roundtable in late August. Workforce problems too: “We have a bigger exodus now and our pipeline is smaller,” said Eric D. Hsi, MD, of Wake Forest University.
In coag collections, every detail counts
September 2021—Rare wine? Delectable. Rara avis? Magnificent. Rare blue-top collection tube? Uh oh. For Richard Marlar, PhD, coming across a non-FDA-approved tube was an unhappy discovery. Dr. Marlar, medical director, coagulation laboratory, University of New Mexico Hospital, says his lab was among the first to encounter one of these rogue tubes, available for purchase on the internet and likely taking wing due to pandemic supply shortages. When the tube arrived for testing, it quickly kindled concerns, says Dr. Marlar. “It’s a tube we had never seen before. It looks like it has a CE mark on it, and the Europeans don’t know anything about it. It has a label on it that suggests it’s FDA approved—but the FDA is not aware of it,” he says, adding that his lab has spoken with the agency. It feels like a “CSI”-tinged moment in a venue that labs would prefer to keep drama-free. It also points to the ongoing need to keep a keen eye on what passes through coagulation laboratories. It’s not so much that the devil is in the details; rather, that’s where accurate results lie.
Gastric HER2, hsALK to join monitored PT list
September 2021—Beginning next year, CAP-accredited laboratories that perform HER2 immunohistochemistry in gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma or highly sensitive (hs) ALK in non-small cell lung cancer will be required to enroll in proficiency testing for those analytes.
Metagenomic NGS: More pros than cons?
September 2021—A stem cell transplant patient at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago had a disseminated fungal infection by every clinical criterion, but no conventional method had detected it.
How to prevail over a crisis using data analytics
September 2021—The pandemic has pelted hospitals and laboratories with wild cards and sometimes thrown wrenches into the works. But the jolts it has delivered to normal institutional operations, forcing new solutions to business and clinical care dilemmas, have also positioned laboratories to help produce stunning new capabilities.
A preanalytics push in accreditation checklists
September 2021—Taking steps to protect the integrity of specimens is at the heart of new and revised requirements in this year’s edition of the accreditation program checklists, set for release Sept. 22. A CAP team made up of members of the Checklists, Personalized Health Care, and Cytopathology committees collaborated to incorporate into the checklists the evidence-based recommendations set forth in a 2019 article on preanalytics and precision pathology. Many of the new and revised requirements, which are in seven checklists, are aimed at improving the quality of tissue and blood specimens that may undergo molecular testing for patients with cancer. The aim of others is to improve the preanalytic quality of specimens used for all types of testing.