The Division of Anatomic Pathology has successfully navigated the challenges of the past year and is poised to meet the challenges of the upcoming year. We are particularly proud of our work this quarter in next generation sequencing and in our leadership advancements, which we are pleased to detail below.

Active Searches:

AP is actively recruiting for the following specialties in Anatomic Pathology, as we seek to meet the needs of our ever-expanding clinical enterprise at the University of Utah.

• Solid Tumor Molecular Oncology
• Breast Pathology

Comprehensive Solid Tumor Next Generation Sequencing

Dr. Joshua Coleman is our inaugural Scientific Director of Solid Tumor Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), a new and critical leadership position at ARUP. Solid tumors, such as lung, colon, breast, and prostate cancers, among many others, comprise more than 90% of all human cancers. Comprehensive next generation sequencing of known cancer genes within these tumors represents a foundational technology of precision medicine. By rapidly sequencing over 500 cancer-related genes simultaneously, the new ARUP solid cancer NGS assay targets tumor-specific genomic alterations unique to individual patients’ cancers to advance their diagnosis, therapy, recurrence tracking, and prognostic status. As an essential step in this development at ARUP, Dr. Coleman and his team have just completed the analytical validation of the Illumina Trusight Oncology (TSO) 500 panel, orderable as “Solid Tumor Comprehensive Genomic Profiling by NGS.” This is a major step forward in our seven-year journey for precision oncology in solid tumors at ARUP

Anatomic Pathology Leadership Announcements:

• Dan Albertson, MD: Interim Anatomic Pathology Division Chief
• Kajsa Affolter, MD: Interim Section Head of Surgical Pathology
• Maria Pletneva, MD PhD: Director, Surgical Pathology Gross Room
• Christian Davidson, MD: Director, AP Operations for HCI Clinical Trials
• Parisa Khalili, MD: Director, Histology Laboratory and Director, Molecular Oncology Tissue Bench

Mary Bronner, MD:

As of January 1, 2022, Dr. Bronner departs her 12-year position as Division Chief of Anatomic Pathology and Solid Tumor Molecular Oncology. This change will allow her to devote her time to her true passions in academic pathology; namely, patient care, research, and teaching. We congratulate Dr. Bronner for her many administrative accomplishments over this time, which have advanced not only the Anatomic Pathology Division, but the whole of the Department of Pathology and ARUP during her many years of service.

AP Faculty Accomplishments/Awards/National Appointments

1. Qinwen Mao, MD, PhD: Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation grant award of $500,000 for the development of a plasma biomarker for dementia
2. George Deftereos, MD: CAP Molecular Oncology Committee (appointed position)

AP Publications from May-Oct, 2021

1. Affolter KE, Hellwig S, Nix DA, Bronner MP, Thomas A, Fuertes CL, Hamil CL, Garrido-Laguna I, Scaife CL, Mulvihill SJ, Underhill HR. Detection of circulating tumor DNA without a tumor-informed search using next-generation sequencing is a prognostic biomarker in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Neoplasia 2021, Sep; 23:859-869. doi: 10.1016/j.neo.2021.06.005. Epub 2021 Jul 21.PMID: 34298235, Free PMC article.
2. Wilson TF, Kohlmann W, Bronner MP: Colonic intramucosal lipoma in Li-Fraumeni syndrome: a new finding. J Cancer Sci Clin Oncol 2021, 8:101.
3. Hu S, Alpert L, Cates JMM, Gonzalez RS, Rare GIST Risk Stratification Group including Bronner MP. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) arising in uncommon locations: clinicopathologic features and risk assessment of esophageal, colonic, and appendiceal GISTs. Mod Pathol 2021, Oct 26; doi: 10.1038/s41379-021-00949-w. Online ahead of print.PMID: 34702994.
4. Dong ZM, Fang J, Byrne KR, Bronner MP, Hale GL. Histologic Mimics and Diagnostic Pitfalls of Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Lifting Media, ORISETM gel and Eleview®. Hum Pathol 2021, Oct 1; S0046-8177(21)00167-2. doi: 10.1016/j.humpath.2021.09.008. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34606848.
5. Pan S, Brand RE, Lai LA, Dawson DW, Donahue TR, Kim S, Khalaf NI, Othman MO, Fisher WE, Bronner MP, Simeone DM, Brentnall TA, Chen R. Proteome heterogeneity and malignancy detection in pancreatic cyst fluids. Clin Transl Med 2021, Aug 11; e506. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.506.PMID: 34459141; Free PMC article.
6. Eisele Y, Mallea PM, Gigic B, Stephens WZ, Warby CA, Buhrke K, Lin T, Boehm J, Schrotz-King P, Hardikar S, Huang LC, Pickron TB, Scaife CL, Viskochil R, Koelsch T, Peoples AR, Pletneva MA, Bronner M, Schneider M, Ulrich AB, Swanson EA, Toriola AT, Shibata D, Li CI, Siegel EM, Figueiredo J, Janssen KP, Hauner H, Round J, Ulrich CM, Holowatyj AN, Ose J. Fusobacterium nucleatum and clinicopathologic features of colorectal cancer clin colorectal cancer: Results from the colocare study. Clin Colorectal Cancer 2021, Sep; 20:e165-e172. doi: 10.1016/j.clcc.2021.02.007. Epub 2021 Feb 27. PMID: 33935016.
7. Villani LA, Stulberg EL, Abbatemarco JR, Davidson CJ, Kadish R, Renner DR, Soldan MMP, Rose JW, Clardy SL, Greenlee JE. Biopsy-proven PML in an HIV-negative patient with discoid lupus: Failure to detect JC virus in CSF. Clin Neurol Neurosurg 2021, Oct; 209:106843. doi: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2021.106843. Epub 2021 Jul 27. PMID: 34461360.
8. Kotiyal S, Evason KJ. Exploring the Interplay of Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase and β-Catenin in Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Cancers (Basel). 2021, Aug 20; 13. doi: 10.3390/cancers13164202. Review. PubMed PMID: 34439356; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8393605.
9. Pham DH, Kudira R, Xu L, Valencia CA, Ellis JL, Shi T, Evason KJ, Osuji I, Matuschek N, Pfuhler L, Mullen M, Mohanty SK, Husami A, Bull LN, Zhang K, Wali S, Yin C, Miethke A. deleterious variants in abcc12 are detected in idiopathic chronic cholestasis and cause intrahepatic bile duct loss in model organisms. Gastroenterology 2021, Jul; 161:287-300.e16. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2021.03.026. Epub 2021, Mar 23; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8238842; PMID: 33771553.
10. Kalasekar SM, Garrido-Laguna I, Evason KJ. Immune checkpoint inhibitors in combinations for hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology 2021, Jun; 73:2591-2593. doi: 10.1002/hep.31706. Epub 2021 May 21. PubMed PMID: 33434363.
11. Jedrzkiewicz J, Sirohi D, Uvejzovic N, Gulbahce HE. RAI1 alternate probe identifies additional gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma cases as amplified following equivocal HER2 fluorescence in situ hybridization testing: experience from a national reference laboratory. Mod Pathol 2021, Oct 18; doi: 10.1038/s41379-021-00933-4. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34663915.
12. Gefen T, Kawles A, Makowski-Woidan B, Engelmeyer J, Ayala I, Abbassian P, Zhang H, Weintraub S, Flanagan ME, Mao Q, et al: Paucity of entorhinal cortex pathology of the Alzheimer's type in super-agers with superior memory performance. Cereb Cortex 2021, 1:3177-3183.
13. Islam M, Davis BTt, Kando MJ, Mao Q, Procissi D, Weiss C, Schwulst SJ: Differential neuropathology and functional outcome after equivalent traumatic brain injury in aged versus young adult mice. Exp Neurol 2021, 341:113714.
14. Zhang J, Chen H, Chen C, Liu H, He Y, Zhao J, Yang P, Mao Q, Xia H: Systemic administration of mesenchymal stem cells loaded with a novel oncolytic adenovirus carrying IL-24/endostatin enhances glioma therapy. Cancer Lett 2021, 509:26-38.
15. Zhu J, Xu H, Song H, Li X, Wang N, Zhao J, Zheng X, Kim KY, Zhang H, Mao Q, Xia H: CRISPR/Cas9-mediated grna gene knockout leads to neurodevelopmental defects and motor behavior changes in zebrafish. J Neurochem 2021, 157:520-531.
16. Radojcic V, Pletneva M, Lee CJ, Ivcevic S, Sarantopoulos S, Couriel D. Hedgehog blockade in steroid-refractory sclerotic chronic graft-versus-host disease. Br J Haematol 2021, Oct; 195:e120-e122. doi: 10.1111/bjh.17657. Epub 2021 Jun 17. PMID: 34142367.
17. Wilcock DM, Schmidt RL, Furtado LV, Matynia AP, Deftereos G, Sirohi D. Histologic and molecular characterization of non-small cell lung carcinoma with discordant ros1 immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol 2021, Sep 16; doi: 10.1097/PAI.0000000000000973. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34534989.
18. Sirohi D MD, Ohe C, Smith SC, Amin MB. SWI/SNF-deficient neoplasms of the genitourinary tract. Semin Diagn Pathol 2021 May; 38:212-221. doi: 10.1053/j.semdp.2021.03.007. Epub 2021 Apr 3. PMID: 33840529.
19. Swami U, Sinnott JA, Haaland B, Sayegh N, McFarland TR, Tripathi N, Maughan BL, Rathi N, Sirohi D, Nussenzveig R, Kohli M, Pal SK, Agarwal N. Treatment pattern and outcomes with systemic therapy in men with metastatic prostate cancer in the real-world patients in the United States. Cancers (Basel) 2021, Sep 30;13:4951. doi: 10.3390/cancers13194951; PMCID: PMC850824; PMID: 346384351.
20. Hamza A, Sirohi D, Smith SC, Amin MB. Low-grade oncocytic fumarate hydratase-deficient renal cell carcinoma: an update on biologic potential, morphologic spectrum, and differential diagnosis with other low-grade oncocytic tumors. Adv Anat Pathol 2021, Nov 1; 28:396-407. doi: 10.1097/PAP.0000000000000321. PMID: 34561376.
21. Maughan BL, Kessel A, McFarland TR, Sayegh N, Nussenzveig R, Hahn AW, Hoffman JM, Morton K, Sirohi D, Kohli M, Swami U, Boucher K, Haaland B, Agarwal N. Radium-223 plus enzalutamide versus enzalutamide in metastatic castration-refractory prostate cancer: Final safety and efficacy results. Oncologist 2021, Aug 22; doi: 10.1002/onco.13949. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34423501.
22. Lin E, Hahn AW, Nussenzveig RH, Wesolowski S, Sayegh N, Maughan BL, McFarland T, Rathi N, Sirohi D, Sonpavde G, Swami U, Kohli M, Rich T, Sartor O, Yandell M, Agarwal N. Identification of somatic gene signatures in circulating cell-free DNA associated with disease progression in metastatic prostate cancer by a novel machine learning platform. Oncologist 2021, Sep; 26:751-760. doi: 10.1002/onco.13869. Epub 2021 Jul 7. PMID: 34157173; PMCID: PMC8417886.
23. Ward M, Albertson D, Furtado LV, Deftereos G. PD-L1 tumor cell expression in upper tract urothelial carcinomas is associated with higher pathologic stage. Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol 2021, Jun 29; doi: 10.1097/PAI.0000000000000957. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34183505.
24. Shipman P, Highland J, Witt B, Alt J. Non-invasive fungal sinusitis as a complication of steroid-eluting stents: A case report. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 2021, Aug 5; 34894211036844. doi: 10.1177/00034894211036844. Online ahead of print.