Kamran Mirza
Loyola University Chicago, USA
Title: Harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics in pathology practice; lessons from the world of leukemia
Biography
Biography: Kamran Mirza
Abstract
Molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine is revolutionizing the way we approach medicine and treatment of disease. Hematopathology was one of the first of the pathology subspecialties to welcome molecular classification into its classification scheme when it introduced the WHO classification in 2001. Since then, the validity and importance of molecular data has increased million folds and continues to increase every day. As pathologists, we need to harness and embrace the power of molecular pathology in our daily practice and hematopathology has led the way. This lecture serves as a historical overview from the discovery of the t(9;22) in CML and the inclusion of the "AMLs with recurrent cytogenetic abnormalities" and how the classification scheme has evolved from WHO 2001, to 2008 and now to 2016. This lecture serve to update the audience on the changes in the WHO 2016 update to leukemia diagnosis in the WHO classification, discuss next generation sequencing and where its utility stands in the diagnosis of leukemia and the future of the field.