Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Bryan Knight
Southern IML Pathology Laboratory, Australia
Keynote: The change to HPV DNA testing in the Australian National Cervical Cancer Screening Program
Time : 09:35-10:15
Biography:
Bryan Knight was trained at the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine and was qualified in Pathology and has obtained his PhD at the University of Cape Town. He has practiced in Cape Town for 20 years and was a Lecturer at UCT and Director of the Yvonne Parffitt Cytology Laboratory. He has also worked in Canada, where he was Associate Professor of Pathology in Edmonton, Alberta, then Laboratory Director at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver.
Abstract:
The Australian National Cervical Cancer Screening Program commenced in 1982 and has reduced the incidence of cervical cancer from 20 per 100,000 women to 9 per 100,000 in 2010. The rate of reduction of cancers has leveled off and remained relatively unchanged since 2010. In 2007, a National HPV Vaccine program for girls and young women was commenced and in 2009 it became school based and expanded to include boys. Up-take of the quadrivalent vaccine is in the region of 85% and the incidence of HPV-related high-grade lesions has fallen in the vaccinated population. There has been a reduction in prevalence of high-grade lesions in older unvaccinated women, suggesting a herd-immunity effect. With the reduced incidence of cervical lesions, detection of abnormal smears on conventional Papanicolaou smears will become more difficult. In the HPV vaccine era, a more sensitive and specific test with a high negative predictive value is needed, predicating a change to HPV DNA testing. Numerous studies have shown that HPV DNA testing with partial genotyping confers the most cost-effective and effective means of population based cervical screening. The Renewed Cervical Screening Program commences in December 2017. Implementation of a new National Cancer Screening Register will change the way women are invited to screening or recalled for follow-up and will reduce under-screening. A new initiative to screen woman who for cultural or other reasons have not been screened, will enhance the efficacy of the program. A further reduction of the incidence of cervical cancer in Australia is anticipated.
Keynote Forum
Kamran Mirza
Loyola University Chicago, USA
Keynote: Harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics in pathology practice; lessons from the world of leukemia
Time : 10:15-10:55
Biography:
Kamran Muhammad Mirza has completed his MBBS from the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan and PhD from University of Illinois in Chicago, IL. He was trained in Combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology with Fellowships in Hematopathology, Thoracic Pathology and Medical Education at the University of Chicago. He is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Medical Director of Molecular Pathology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, IL. He is the recipient of numerous pathologist-in-training awards, teacher-of-the year awards and honors such as induction into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society and selection into American Society for Clinical Pathology's 40 Under Forty 2017.
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.