News
Dr. Victor G. Prieto was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in honor of his notable contributions to the field of cancer research especially in the area of melanocytic lesions.
Dr. Phyu Aung was recently selected to be the winner of the highly coveted 2022 Arthur Purdy Stout Society Annual Prize. The official announcement will be made at the USCAP-APSS Companion Society Meeting on Sunday March 20, 2022.
Dr. Priyadharsini Nagarajan was selected as DPLM Professionalism Ambassador.
Translational Molecular Pathology-Dermatopathology
Laboratory
The goal of the Translational Molecular Pathology-Dermatopathology Laboratory (TMP-DL, Drs. J. Curry and C. Torres-Cabala, co-directors) is to facilitate the evaluation of skin diseases in patients treated at MD Anderson Cancer Center. At the TMP-DL, our team (including, C. Hudgens, Sr. Research Assistant and Drs. M. Marques-Piubelli, A. Ledesma, R. Lazcano, Postdoctoral Fellows) investigate, among others, melanoma, non-melanocytic skin cancers, and cutaneous lymphomas.
Investigations in the molecular pathogenesis of melanoma and other skin diseases has enhanced our understanding of the pathology and mechanisms that may drive some of these malignancies. The accelerated development of novel targeted therapy and immunotherapy has ushered in the era of personalized cancer medicine and oncodermatopathology and thus, identification of prognostic and predictive biomarkers associated with therapy response is an urgent need. Also, the development of potentially life-threatening skin toxicities due to these new therapies make the elucidation of the immune mechanisms that drive these adverse cutaneous reactions a priority, in order to identify targetable, efficacious therapy to alleviate these skin toxicities.
New Faculty
Dr. Leomar Ballester joined Anatomical Pathology as Assistant Professor, Term Tenure Track, and holds a joint appointment in Translational Molecular Pathology. He spent the last 4 years at UT Health and brings to MD Anderson years of valuable research in Neuropathology and Brain Tumors, along with strong Molecular Pathology history and neuropathology expertise.
Dr. Woo Cheal Cho joined Anatomical Pathology as Assistant Professor, Term Tenure Track in July 2021 and holds a joint appointment in Translational Molecular Pathology. Dr. Cho has completed his Surgical Pathology and Dermatopathology fellowships here at MD Anderson. He joined the subspecialty of Dermatopathology, with a research focus on cutaneous melanoma.
Dr. Sayed Mohsen Hosseini joined Anatomical Pathology and holds a joint appointment in Translational Molecular Pathology. He will be serving in the Cytopathology, and Head & Neck pathology sections, and combines these subspecialty interests with Molecular Pathology research. Dr. Hosseini recently completed his fellowship at UCSF.
FY22 DPLM Trainee Research Grant & Award Recipients
Kingsley Ebare, MD
Mentor: Kanishka Sircar, MD
Investigating Tumor and Microenvironment Biomarkers in Sarcomatoid Renal Cell Carcinomas Treated with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
Rohan Moniruzzaman, PhD
Mentor: Huamin Wang, MD, PhD
Uncover the Role of HPK1 in Pancreatic Tumor Microenvironment
Lei Sun, MD
Mentor: Huamin Wang, MD, PhD
Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs), CD73 and PD-L1 Expression and Their Associations in Pancreatic Acinar Cell Carcinoma Progression
Mehran Taherian, MD
Mentor: Huamin Wang, MD, PhD
Spatial Mapping of Tumor-Immune Interactions and Molecular Signaling in Pancreatic Cancer
Kaitlin Vanderbeck, MD
Mentor: Phyu Aung, MD, PhD
Understanding the Role of Epigenetic Alterations in TERT and Telomerase Activity in Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Correlation Analysis of TERT Promoter Hypermethylation and TERT Protein Expression and Assessment of Their Prognostic Significance
DPLM Early Career Faculty Research Grant & Award Recipient
Phyu Aung, MD, PhD
Analysis of Immunoprofile and Metabolic Signatures in Acral Melanoma
Anatomical Pathology Chair Funds Recipients
Prih Rohra, MD
Mentor: Qiong Gan, MD, PhD
Comparison of TRPS1 with GATA-3 Immunostaining Using Fine-Needle Aspiration Material
Kaitlin Vanderbeck, MD
Mentors: Woo Cho, MD & Phyu Aung, MD, PhD
A Comparative Analysis of SOX11, CK20, PAX5, and TTF-1 Expressions in Merkel Cell Carcinoma and Pulmonary Small Cell Carcinoma: Anti-SOX11 as Effective Discriminatory Immunohistochemical Marker for Merkel Cell Carcinoma
Jing Wang, MD, PhD
Mentors: Savitri Krishnamurthy, MD & Esther Yoon, MD
Identification of HER2 Low Invasive Breast Carcinoma
Educational Program Expansion
The Texas Medical Board has approved 6 Advanced Fellowship positions, which will rotate among the following subspecialties:
• Breast Pathology
• Bone & Soft Tissue Pathology
• Cytology
• GI Pathology
• GU Pathology
• GYN
Pathology
• Head & Neck Pathology
• Molecular Genetics
Pathology
• Thoracic Pathology
Publications
Yi Tat Tong, Hua Wang, Dongguang Wei, Laura R. Prakash, Michael Kim, Ching-Wei D. Tzeng, Jeffrey E. Lee, Asif Rashid, Eugene J. Koay, Robert A. Wolff, Anirban Maitra, Matthew HG. Katz, Huamin Wang. GRP78 expression and prognostic significance in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma treated with neoadjuvant therapy versus surgery first. Pancreatology, 2021. Read More
Liu, Z, Williams, M, Stewart, J, Glisson, BS, Fuller, C, Roy-Chowdhuri, S. Evaluation of programmed death ligand 1 expression in cytology to determine eligibility for immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Cancer Cytopathol. 2021. Read More
Holdener SL, Gong Y. Fine-needle aspiration of metastatic melanoma with signet-ring cell features. Diagn Cytopathol. 2021 Oct;49(10):1138-1140. doi: 10.1002/dc.24850. Epub 2021 Aug 13. Read More