PPS President Welcome Letter
Thank you for visiting the Pulmonary Pathology Society website!
The PPS welcomes the perspectives of an international membership and seeks to provide cutting edge education and updates to pathologists at all levels of training and experience with an interest in thoracic diseases. The PPS has been a leading source of continuing medical education around pulmonary, pleural, and mediastinal pathology for nearly 30 years.
I am honored to serve as the president of the PPS for 2024-2026 and to work closely with Dr. Richard Attanoos as Vice President, Dr. Anja Rosen as Treasurer, and Dr. Sabina Berezowska as Secretary to support the health of the society and to extend its international reach. We are indebted to Dr. Alain Borczuk, immediate past president, for his leadership within the society.
Under Dr. Borczuk’s guidance, we enjoyed an exceptional 2024 biannual meeting in New York City. In addition to the board, major contributors to the success of the program included Jennifer Boland, chair of the program committee chair and Andre Moreira, chair of the award’s committee and local liaison with the exceptional staff at New York University. Highlights of the meeting included awarding of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Jeffrey Myers.
Dr. Natasha Rekhtman has agreed to serve as our Program Committee chair for 2024-2026. In addition to assembling companion society meetings to be held at United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology in 2025 and 2026, we are already planning for the 2026 Biannual meeting to be held in Quebec City, in June 2026. This will mark the 30th anniversary of the PPS and promises to be a dynamic meeting that celebrates the past, present, and future of thoracic pathology.
Please explore the PPS website for opportunities to learn more about the society, broaden your diagnostic repertoire in Case of the Month, catch up on the latest advances in pulmonary pathology via the Mayo Clinic Journal Club, and explore fellowship and career opportunities.
With best wishes,
Lynette M. Sholl, MD
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Vice Chair of Anatomic Pathology
Medical Director (Interim), Center for Advanced Molecular Diagnostics
Chief of Oncologic Pathology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute
A 34-year-old man presented with shortness of breath and chest pain. He was a former smoker with a remote history of right orchiectomy for testicular torsion. CT chest showed a 25.8 cm mass in the anterior mediastinum extending to the right of midline, with heterogeneous internal enhancement (Figure 1). Serologic markers revealed elevated AFP (2760 ng/mL). After 2 cycles of chemotherapy, he presented with worsening shortness of breath and acute drop in hemoglobin. He underwent urgent thoracotomy with thymectomy and en bloc resection of pericardium and diaphragm. Microscopic examination showed a partially necrotic and hemorrhagic neoplasm with solid and cystic components (low magnification, Figure 2). The tumor contained different tissue elements including mature cartilage, gastrointestinal epithelium, and glial tissue. The stroma demonstrated areas of hypercellularity with atypical cells, increased mitotic activity, and prominent vascular spaces (Figure 3). Some areas had a papillary “Masson-like” appearance (Figure 4). Other areas showed more complex inter-anastomosing vascular spaces with focal multilayering, cytologic atypia, and necrosis (Figure 5). Immunohistochemical stains revealed the stromal cells expressed variable desmin and CAM 5.2, while the cells lining vascular spaces were positive for ERG (Figure 6). Additional immunostains were negative including SOX10, myogenin, OCT3/4, glypican 3, CD30, beta-HCG, and GATA-3.
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