Establishing molecular pathology curriculum for pathology trainees and continued medical education: a collaborative work from the Molecular Pathology Study Group of the Korean Society of Pathologists

Background The importance of molecular pathology tests has increased during the last decade, and there is a great need for efficient training of molecular pathology for pathology trainees and as continued medical education. Methods The Molecular Pathology Study Group of the Korean Society of Pathologists appointed a task force composed of experienced molecular pathologists to develop a refined educational curriculum of molecular pathology. A 3-day online educational session was held based on the newly established structure of learning objectives; the audience were asked to score their understanding of 22 selected learning objectives before and after the session to assess the effect of structured education. Results The structured objectives and goals of molecular pathology was established and posted as a web-based interface which can serve as a knowledge bank of molecular pathology. A total of 201 pathologists participated in the educational session. For all 22 learning objectives, the scores of self-reported understanding increased after educational session by 9.9 points on average (range, 6.6 to 17.0). The most effectively improved items were objectives from next-generation sequencing (NGS) section: ‘NGS library preparation and quality control’ (score increased from 51.8 to 68.8), ‘NGS interpretation of variants and reference database’ (score increased from 54.1 to 68.0), and ‘whole genome, whole exome, and targeted gene sequencing’ (score increased from 58.2 to 71.2). Qualitative responses regarding the adequacy of refined educational curriculum were collected, where favorable comments dominated. Conclusions Approach toward the education of molecular pathology was refined, which would greatly benefit the future trainees

Systemic Lymphadenopathic Mastocytosis with Eosinophilia

Systemic mastocytosis is a neoplastic proliferation of mast cells that most frequently involves cutaneous sites. Mastocytosis involves various extracutaneous sites, but the lymph node is rare. We present an interesting image of systemic mastocytosis in the lymph node with marked eosinophilia. It is a rare subtype of systemic mastocytosis requiring high suspicion levels for the correct diagnosis

Relationship of subcellular expression of GS28 with clinicopathological features of cervical cancer tissues.

<p>Relationship of subcellular expression of GS28 with clinicopathological features of cervical cancer tissues.</p

Immunoblotting of cervical cancer tissue extracts.

<p>Whole (W), cytoplasmic (C), and nuclear (N) fractions were prepared from tissues of one adenocarcinoma (ADC) and five squamous cell carcinomas (SqCC), and GS28 expression in the fractions was examined by immunoblotting using the anti-GS28 antibody. Laminin B1 and α-tubulin were used as the nuclear and cytoplasmic markers, respectively.</p

Relationship of nuclear expression of GS28 with p53 and Bcl-2 expression in cervical cancer tissues.

<p>Relationship of nuclear expression of GS28 with p53 and Bcl-2 expression in cervical cancer tissues.</p

Multivariate Cox regression analysis for overall survival and progression-free survival in cervical cancer patients (N = 177).

<p>Multivariate Cox regression analysis for overall survival and progression-free survival in cervical cancer patients (N = 177).</p

Kaplan-Meier curves of univariate analysis data (log-rank test).

<p>(A) The overall survival (OS) and (B) progression-free survival (PFS) of cervical cancer patients with high versus low nuclear expression of GS28. (C) The OS and (D) PFS of patients with stage T1 tumors (pT1 subgroup), and (E) the OS and (F) PFS of patients without lymph node metastasis (negative-lymph node-metastasis subgroup) with high versus low nuclear expression of GS28.</p