Endocr Pathol DOI 10.1007/s12022-013-9281-8
A Brief History of the Endocrine Pathology Society Ronald A. DeLellis
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Keywords Endocrine Pathology Society . History
Endocrine pathology is a relatively new subspecialty, which, despite its young age, is in continual development and evolution. This has occurred largely as a result of a series of spectacular advances in our understanding of many of the disorders at the cellular and molecular levels. These discoveries have had profound effects not only on diagnostic approaches for the practicing surgical pathologist and cytopathologist but also on potential surgical and chemotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of this fascinating group of disorders. The Endocrine Pathology Society, a Companion Society of the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP), is an international scientific organization that is dedicated to the understanding and diagnosis of endocrine diseases. The genesis of the society was largely a result of multiple discussions between Dr. Hubert J. Wolfe (Tufts University School of Medicine and the Tufts Medical Center, Boston), Dr. Kalman Kovacs (University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto), and members of the pathology community interested in the discipline of endocrine pathology. Recognizing their efforts in establishing the society, Drs. Wolfe and Kovacs were appointed as its first two presidents in 1992 and 1993, respectively. Subsequent presidents and other officers have been
R. A. DeLellis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Lifespan Academic Medical Center, Providence, RI, USA R. A. DeLellis (*) Department of Pathology, Rhode Island Hospital, 593 Eddy Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA e-mail: [email protected]
drawn from the ranks of distinguished endocrine pathologists from North America, Europe, and Japan (Table 1). The goal of the society has been the presentation of an annual symposium for pathologists, focusing on the most current scientific information in this rapidly developing subspecialty area. The emphasis of the symposia has been on novel technical approaches, updated concepts, practice guidelines, differential diagnoses, and the definition of new entities.
Table 1 Presidents of the Endocrine Pathology Society
Dr. Hubert J. Wolfe (1992) Dr. Kalman Kovacs (1993) Dr. Robert Y. Osamura (1994) Dr. Phillip Heitz (1995) Dr. Virginia A. LiVolsi (1996) Dr. Toru Kameya (1997) Dr. Sylvia L. Asa (1998) Dr. Gunter Kloppel (1999) Dr. Ronald A. DeLellis (2000) Dr. Ricardo V. Lloyd (2001) Dr. Arthur S. Tischler (2002) Dr. Toshiaki Sano (2003) Dr. Prof. Gianni Bussolati (2004) Dr. Ashraf Khan (2005) Dr. Ryohei Katoh (2006) Dr. Yogeshwar Dayal (2007) Dr. Anne Marie McNicol (2008) Dr. Vania Nosé (2009) Dr. Kennichi Kakudo (2010) Dr. Ronald Ghossein (2011) Dr. George Kontogeorgos (2012) Dr. Thomas Giordano (2013) Dr. Hironobu Sasano (2014)
Endocr Pathol Table 2 Annual Symposium Topics and Moderators 1992: Current concepts in adrenal pathology (Dr. Hubert J. Wolfe) 1993: Update on endocrine pathology of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas (Drs. Kalman Kovacs and Sylvia L. Asa) 1994: Endocrine pathology of the gonads (Drs. Y. Osamura and Virginia A. LiVolsi) 1995: Multiple endocrine neoplasia (Dr. Philipp U. Heitz) 1996: Neuroendocrine tumors (Dr. Virginia A. LiVolsi) 1997: Thyroid neoplasms (Dr. Toru Kameya) 1998: Clonality and the hyperplasia–neoplasia dilemma (Dr. Sylvia L. Asa) 1999: Pathology of persistent hypoglycemia (Drs. Gunter Klöppel and Arthur S. Tischler) 2000: Progress in endocrine pathology: opportunities and challenges for the 21st century (Dr. Ronald A. Delellis) 2001: The difficult differential diagnosis in endocrine pathology (Dr. Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2002: Lesions of thyroid follicular epithelium (Dr. Arthurs S. Tischler) 2003: Practical and molecular aspects of neuroendocrine tumors (Dr. Toshiaki Sano) 2004: The gap between well differentiated and anaplastic carcinomas of the thyroid (Drs. Gianni Bussolati and Ronald A. DeLellis) 2005: Diagnosis of follicular patterned lesions of the thyroid: from FNA to DNA (Drs. Ashraf Khan and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2006: Lesions of the adrenal gland and paragangliomas (Drs. Ryohei Katoh and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2007: Gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors: a centennial tribute to siegfried oberndorfer (Drs. Yogeshwar Dayal and Gunter Kloppel) 2008: Difficult lesions in the differential diagnosis in endocrine pathology (Drs. Anne Marie McNicol and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2009: Recent advances in thyroid neoplasia (Drs. Vania Nosé and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2010: New insight in the encapsulated thyroid follicular cell tumors (Drs. Kennich Kakudo and Virginia A. LiVolsi) 2011: Problems and controversies in thyroid carcinomas of follicular cell origin (Drs. Ronald Ghossein and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2012: Minimizing gray zones in the diagnosis of endocrine lesions (Drs. Georgios Kontogeorgos and Vania Nosé) 2013: Genomic approaches to problems in endocrine neoplasia (Dr. Thomas Giordano)
The inaugural meeting of the society was held in Atlanta on 14 March 1992 to a relatively small gathering which has grown impressively over the subsequent years of the society’s existence. The subject of that first meeting, which was moderated by Dr. Wolfe, was Current Concepts in Adrenal Pathology and included presentations on adrenal cortical tumors in childhood and adolescence, adrenal changes in AIDS, and new concepts in adrenal medullary pathology. Over the course of more than two decades, symposia topics have provided an extraordinarily rich menu offering virtually every aspect of endocrine pathology (Table 2). The annual symposia have also provided an important forum for the discussion of controversial topics in endocrine
pathology both among panelists and audience members. In some instances, these interactions have led to the design of collaborative studies directed to the resolution of critical questions and problems. For example, the 2004 symposium on the The gap between well differentiated and anaplastic carcinomas of the thyroid was a major stimulus for the development of the Turin proposal for the classification of poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas [1]. With the establishment of the Cancer Genome Project, it is likely that many additional collaborative projects designed to study the molecular profiles of endocrine tumors and other disorders will become available. A highly anticipated event at each of the annual meetings is the presentation of the Hubert Wolfe Award. This award, established in memory of Dr. Wolfe (1934–2001), is presented at the discretion of the society to honor an outstanding paper in the field of endocrine pathology published during the previous year by a pathologist-intraining. The selected papers present a remarkable crosssection of the current work being performed by young investigators in the field (Table 3). Endocrine pathology became the official journal of the society in March 1993, largely through the efforts of its founding editors, Dr. Kalman Kovacs and Dr. Sylvia Asa. Subsequent editors-in-chief have included Drs. Ricardo V. Lloyd, Arthur S. Tischler, Virginia A. LiVolsi, and Anne Marie McNicol. The journal, which is now published quarterly by Springer, provides original articles and reviews covering clinical and basic aspects of endocrine disorders, selected case reports, novel technical approaches relevant to the practice of
Table 3 Hubert J Wolfe Awardees Dr. Daniel A Winer (2012): Winer, DA et al. B cells promote insulin resistance through modulation of T cells and production of pathogenic IgG antibodies. Nat Med 2011; 17: 610–617. Dr. Jose Gaal (2010): van Nederveen, FW, Gaal, J et al. An immunohistochemical procedure to detect patients with paraganglioma and pheochromocytoma with germline SDHB, SDHC, or SDHD gene mutations: a retrospective and prospective analysis. Lancet Oncol 2009; 10:764–71. Dr. Tetsuo Kondo (2007): Kondo, T et al. Epigenetically controlled fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 signaling imposes on the RAS/BRAF/mitogen activated protein kinase pathway to modulate thyroid cancer progression. Cancer Res 2007; 67:5461–70. Dr. Francien H van Nederveen (2006): van Nederveen, FH et al. PTEN gene loss, but not mutation, in benign and malignant phaeochromocytoma. J Pathol 2006; 209:274–80. Dr. Martin Anlauf (2005): Anlauf, M et al. Persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia in 15 adults with diffuse nesidioblastosis: diagnostic criteria, incidence, and characterization of beta cell changes. Am J Surg Pathol 2005; 29: 524–33. Dr. Hina A Sheikh (2004): Sheikh, HA et al. Molecular genotyping of medullary thyroid carcinoma can predict tumor recurrence. Am J Surg Pathol 2004; 28: 101–6.
Endocr Pathol
endocrine pathology, and book reviews. In addition, the journal publishes selected proceedings of the annual symposia. Through the efforts of the editors-in-chief, the outstanding editorial board, and the contributors of the high-quality manuscripts, the journal’s impact factor continues to increase. As noted by the great physiologist Albert SzentGyorgyi, “A discovery is said to be an accident occurring in a prepared mind.” The major goal of the Endocrine Pathology Society has been and will continue to be the preparation of minds for the future discoveries and challenges of this subspecialty area.
Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank Ms. Carolyn Lane from the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology for the information provided in Table 2.
Reference 1. Volante, M, Collini, P, Nikiforov, YE, Sakomoto, A, Kakudo, K, Katoh, R, Lloyed, RV, LiVolsi, VA, Papotti, M, Sobrino-Simoes, M, Bussolati, G, Rosai, J. Poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma: the Turin proposal for the use of uniform diagnostic criteria and an alogorithmic diagnostic approach. Am J Surg Pathol 2007; 31:1256–64.
A Brief History of the Endocrine Pathology Society Ronald A. DeLellis
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Keywords Endocrine Pathology Society . History
Endocrine pathology is a relatively new subspecialty, which, despite its young age, is in continual development and evolution. This has occurred largely as a result of a series of spectacular advances in our understanding of many of the disorders at the cellular and molecular levels. These discoveries have had profound effects not only on diagnostic approaches for the practicing surgical pathologist and cytopathologist but also on potential surgical and chemotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of this fascinating group of disorders. The Endocrine Pathology Society, a Companion Society of the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP), is an international scientific organization that is dedicated to the understanding and diagnosis of endocrine diseases. The genesis of the society was largely a result of multiple discussions between Dr. Hubert J. Wolfe (Tufts University School of Medicine and the Tufts Medical Center, Boston), Dr. Kalman Kovacs (University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto), and members of the pathology community interested in the discipline of endocrine pathology. Recognizing their efforts in establishing the society, Drs. Wolfe and Kovacs were appointed as its first two presidents in 1992 and 1993, respectively. Subsequent presidents and other officers have been
R. A. DeLellis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Lifespan Academic Medical Center, Providence, RI, USA R. A. DeLellis (*) Department of Pathology, Rhode Island Hospital, 593 Eddy Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA e-mail: [email protected]
drawn from the ranks of distinguished endocrine pathologists from North America, Europe, and Japan (Table 1). The goal of the society has been the presentation of an annual symposium for pathologists, focusing on the most current scientific information in this rapidly developing subspecialty area. The emphasis of the symposia has been on novel technical approaches, updated concepts, practice guidelines, differential diagnoses, and the definition of new entities.
Table 1 Presidents of the Endocrine Pathology Society
Dr. Hubert J. Wolfe (1992) Dr. Kalman Kovacs (1993) Dr. Robert Y. Osamura (1994) Dr. Phillip Heitz (1995) Dr. Virginia A. LiVolsi (1996) Dr. Toru Kameya (1997) Dr. Sylvia L. Asa (1998) Dr. Gunter Kloppel (1999) Dr. Ronald A. DeLellis (2000) Dr. Ricardo V. Lloyd (2001) Dr. Arthur S. Tischler (2002) Dr. Toshiaki Sano (2003) Dr. Prof. Gianni Bussolati (2004) Dr. Ashraf Khan (2005) Dr. Ryohei Katoh (2006) Dr. Yogeshwar Dayal (2007) Dr. Anne Marie McNicol (2008) Dr. Vania Nosé (2009) Dr. Kennichi Kakudo (2010) Dr. Ronald Ghossein (2011) Dr. George Kontogeorgos (2012) Dr. Thomas Giordano (2013) Dr. Hironobu Sasano (2014)
Endocr Pathol Table 2 Annual Symposium Topics and Moderators 1992: Current concepts in adrenal pathology (Dr. Hubert J. Wolfe) 1993: Update on endocrine pathology of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas (Drs. Kalman Kovacs and Sylvia L. Asa) 1994: Endocrine pathology of the gonads (Drs. Y. Osamura and Virginia A. LiVolsi) 1995: Multiple endocrine neoplasia (Dr. Philipp U. Heitz) 1996: Neuroendocrine tumors (Dr. Virginia A. LiVolsi) 1997: Thyroid neoplasms (Dr. Toru Kameya) 1998: Clonality and the hyperplasia–neoplasia dilemma (Dr. Sylvia L. Asa) 1999: Pathology of persistent hypoglycemia (Drs. Gunter Klöppel and Arthur S. Tischler) 2000: Progress in endocrine pathology: opportunities and challenges for the 21st century (Dr. Ronald A. Delellis) 2001: The difficult differential diagnosis in endocrine pathology (Dr. Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2002: Lesions of thyroid follicular epithelium (Dr. Arthurs S. Tischler) 2003: Practical and molecular aspects of neuroendocrine tumors (Dr. Toshiaki Sano) 2004: The gap between well differentiated and anaplastic carcinomas of the thyroid (Drs. Gianni Bussolati and Ronald A. DeLellis) 2005: Diagnosis of follicular patterned lesions of the thyroid: from FNA to DNA (Drs. Ashraf Khan and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2006: Lesions of the adrenal gland and paragangliomas (Drs. Ryohei Katoh and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2007: Gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors: a centennial tribute to siegfried oberndorfer (Drs. Yogeshwar Dayal and Gunter Kloppel) 2008: Difficult lesions in the differential diagnosis in endocrine pathology (Drs. Anne Marie McNicol and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2009: Recent advances in thyroid neoplasia (Drs. Vania Nosé and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2010: New insight in the encapsulated thyroid follicular cell tumors (Drs. Kennich Kakudo and Virginia A. LiVolsi) 2011: Problems and controversies in thyroid carcinomas of follicular cell origin (Drs. Ronald Ghossein and Ricardo V. Lloyd) 2012: Minimizing gray zones in the diagnosis of endocrine lesions (Drs. Georgios Kontogeorgos and Vania Nosé) 2013: Genomic approaches to problems in endocrine neoplasia (Dr. Thomas Giordano)
The inaugural meeting of the society was held in Atlanta on 14 March 1992 to a relatively small gathering which has grown impressively over the subsequent years of the society’s existence. The subject of that first meeting, which was moderated by Dr. Wolfe, was Current Concepts in Adrenal Pathology and included presentations on adrenal cortical tumors in childhood and adolescence, adrenal changes in AIDS, and new concepts in adrenal medullary pathology. Over the course of more than two decades, symposia topics have provided an extraordinarily rich menu offering virtually every aspect of endocrine pathology (Table 2). The annual symposia have also provided an important forum for the discussion of controversial topics in endocrine
pathology both among panelists and audience members. In some instances, these interactions have led to the design of collaborative studies directed to the resolution of critical questions and problems. For example, the 2004 symposium on the The gap between well differentiated and anaplastic carcinomas of the thyroid was a major stimulus for the development of the Turin proposal for the classification of poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas [1]. With the establishment of the Cancer Genome Project, it is likely that many additional collaborative projects designed to study the molecular profiles of endocrine tumors and other disorders will become available. A highly anticipated event at each of the annual meetings is the presentation of the Hubert Wolfe Award. This award, established in memory of Dr. Wolfe (1934–2001), is presented at the discretion of the society to honor an outstanding paper in the field of endocrine pathology published during the previous year by a pathologist-intraining. The selected papers present a remarkable crosssection of the current work being performed by young investigators in the field (Table 3). Endocrine pathology became the official journal of the society in March 1993, largely through the efforts of its founding editors, Dr. Kalman Kovacs and Dr. Sylvia Asa. Subsequent editors-in-chief have included Drs. Ricardo V. Lloyd, Arthur S. Tischler, Virginia A. LiVolsi, and Anne Marie McNicol. The journal, which is now published quarterly by Springer, provides original articles and reviews covering clinical and basic aspects of endocrine disorders, selected case reports, novel technical approaches relevant to the practice of
Table 3 Hubert J Wolfe Awardees Dr. Daniel A Winer (2012): Winer, DA et al. B cells promote insulin resistance through modulation of T cells and production of pathogenic IgG antibodies. Nat Med 2011; 17: 610–617. Dr. Jose Gaal (2010): van Nederveen, FW, Gaal, J et al. An immunohistochemical procedure to detect patients with paraganglioma and pheochromocytoma with germline SDHB, SDHC, or SDHD gene mutations: a retrospective and prospective analysis. Lancet Oncol 2009; 10:764–71. Dr. Tetsuo Kondo (2007): Kondo, T et al. Epigenetically controlled fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 signaling imposes on the RAS/BRAF/mitogen activated protein kinase pathway to modulate thyroid cancer progression. Cancer Res 2007; 67:5461–70. Dr. Francien H van Nederveen (2006): van Nederveen, FH et al. PTEN gene loss, but not mutation, in benign and malignant phaeochromocytoma. J Pathol 2006; 209:274–80. Dr. Martin Anlauf (2005): Anlauf, M et al. Persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia in 15 adults with diffuse nesidioblastosis: diagnostic criteria, incidence, and characterization of beta cell changes. Am J Surg Pathol 2005; 29: 524–33. Dr. Hina A Sheikh (2004): Sheikh, HA et al. Molecular genotyping of medullary thyroid carcinoma can predict tumor recurrence. Am J Surg Pathol 2004; 28: 101–6.
Endocr Pathol
endocrine pathology, and book reviews. In addition, the journal publishes selected proceedings of the annual symposia. Through the efforts of the editors-in-chief, the outstanding editorial board, and the contributors of the high-quality manuscripts, the journal’s impact factor continues to increase. As noted by the great physiologist Albert SzentGyorgyi, “A discovery is said to be an accident occurring in a prepared mind.” The major goal of the Endocrine Pathology Society has been and will continue to be the preparation of minds for the future discoveries and challenges of this subspecialty area.
Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank Ms. Carolyn Lane from the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology for the information provided in Table 2.
Reference 1. Volante, M, Collini, P, Nikiforov, YE, Sakomoto, A, Kakudo, K, Katoh, R, Lloyed, RV, LiVolsi, VA, Papotti, M, Sobrino-Simoes, M, Bussolati, G, Rosai, J. Poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma: the Turin proposal for the use of uniform diagnostic criteria and an alogorithmic diagnostic approach. Am J Surg Pathol 2007; 31:1256–64.
