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 65-year-old male with a 10.5 pack-year smoking history (daily smoker) underwent a routine screening CT scan of the chest which showed a 10 cm mass in the right middle lobe of the lung. A CT-guided biopsy was performed (figures 1-3 H&E, 4-8 immunohistochemical stains) which showed a low-grade spindle cell neoplasm (figures 1-3). On immunohistochemistry, the spindle cells demonstrated immunoreactivity to AE1/AE3, p40, and CD20; a stain for TdT highlights the paucity of T cells (Figures 4-8). Also included in the workup were stains for S100, INSM1, STAT6, CD34, TTF-1, Napsin-A, PAX-8, Desmin, SMA, CD21, and SS18-SSX, which were all negative. Additional imaging and PET scan indicated that this mass was lobulated, heterogeneous, and partially calcified in the anteromedial middle lobe, abutting the pericardial surface and anterior pleura, further extending into the mediastinum. Whether this mass was primarily originating in the mediastinum and involving the lung or arising in the lung and extending into the mediastinal region was not clear at the time of the biopsy. Genomic DNA extracted from this tumor was analyzed using next-generation sequencing (NGS), which showed only KDM6A mutations.
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