- Brittani Riddle
Pathologists can act now to stop lab cuts in the new year. And as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month comes to an end, Dr. Glendale Panner discusses new research and what pathologists should know coming up next on the Path News Network.
This is the Path News Network Daily Edition powered by the College of American Pathologists. Today is Tuesday, September 30th. I'm Brittani Riddle with the latest news.
A new bill introduced in Congress would prevent a 15% Medicare cut to pay for clinical lab tests. If passed, the Reforming and Enhancing Sustainable Updates to Laboratory Testing Services, or RESULTS Act, would fix how Medicare sets payment rates. The CAP is urging Congress to pass the RESULTS Act, and you can too. Click the link in today's show notes to send an action alert and tell your lawmakers to support the RESULTS Act.
The Trump administration has implemented a major change to the H-1B visa program. As of September 21, new applicants must pay a $100,000 fee for these visas. The move is already raising concerns among hospitals and pathologists. According to the CAP's 2024 Practice Characteristics Survey, at least 8% of pathologists have held H-1B visas. The CAP has formally called for an exemption for physicians. You can read more in today's advocacy newsletter.
In other news from Capitol Hill, only a few hours remain for Congress to avoid a government shutdown. The CAP will follow the latest on the PATH News Network.
Finally, we're closing Prostate Cancer Awareness Month with a conversation about the latest research with Dr. Gladell Paner, a professor of pathology with the University of Chicago and CAP member. Dr. Paner, thank you so much for joining me today. Can you tell us a little bit about the new developments in prostate cancer research for pathologists?
- Dr. Gladell Paner
There is a big news this year for prostate cancer in that the two leading GU societies in GUPS, the Genital Urinary Pathology Society and ISA, the International Society of Urological Pathology, have come up with a common recommendation to include intraductal carcinoma or IDCP with concomitant invasive cancer in grading. Prior to this, there was confusion because of the different recommendations regarding IDCP from the two societies. Also, out of this ISOP and GUPS consultation, diagnosis of I Atypical intraductal proliferation or AIP by pathologists is emphasized. IAP is a new term. It's intraductal proliferation with features that is more than that of high-grade PIN, but fell short of the criteria of IDCP. So it will now be important for pathologists to report the presence of AIP in negative biopsies and biopsies with low-grade cancer because of the potential need to re-biopsy the patients to search for undersampled IDCP or higher-grade cancer. And beyond this, most of the recent research for prostate cancers are really on the high-grade prostate cancer spectrum. For example, we are now familiar with targeted therapies in prostate cancers with drugs that target, for example, BRCA1 and 2, like the PARP inhibitors or olaparib. Also, there are ongoing research on antibody drug conjugates or ADC. This novel form of treatment, by the way, has been approved by the FDA for bladder cancer last year. So although these are at the therapeutic side of things, what this means for pathologists is the potential growth of biomarkers in prostate cancers as targets or predictive markers. And not only for prostate cancer, but for most GU cancers in general.
- Brittani Riddle
There's been some discussion on renaming grade group 1 prostate cancer. Could you elaborate on what that means and how it would affect pathologists and patients?
- Dr. Gladell Paner
So, of course, the importance for this for the patient is that with the diagnosis of intraductal carcinoma and AIP, this will help us sort out this patient for if they are optimal or not for active surveillance. management, most of the prostate cancers are indolent. it is common now for a patient to be advised to undergo deferred treatment or active surveillance if they have a low-grade or indolent prostate cancer. And what this means for the patient is that if intraductor carcinoma is emphasized, if AIP is emphasized, then we can identify those patients who may not be eligible for this active surveillance management. this is where it comes in for the patient. And also in terms of those novel therapies for the higher grade prostate cancers, of course, there are new promising treatment modalities that could benefit the patient, especially with patients with aggressive form of prostate cancer.
- Brittani Riddle
You talked a lot about the growth and the new research for pathologists, but could you talk a little bit about what that might mean for patients who may be listening as well.
- Dr. Gladell Paner
Many patients with indolent prostate cancer live quite long, and it is remarkable that some patients with GG1 prostate cancers remain in active surveillance for as long as 15 years without symptoms or progression of disease, as shown by the Johns Hopkins and other active surveillance studies. Now, living that long with cancer without active treatment is antithetical, completely opposite to what we commonly know about cancer, especially for patients who may have relatives or friends who passed away from cancer. So there's been a push to rename GG1 prostate cancer with stronger support coming from the clinician's side. However, diagnostically, this is not an easy task for pathologists in distinguishing GG1 prostate cancer in biopsy between GG1 cancer that progress versus GG1 cancer with very long latency with our current technology. Personally, I believe that there is a subset of non-progressing or indolent prostate cancer that should be renamed as non-cancer. Hopefully, in the future, advances in technology and more research directed on this area will help us better identify and define this indolent prostate cancer.
- Brittani Riddle
You talked a lot about the advancing technologies, and I'm curious to know how the rise of digital pathology would impact pathology research in the future.
- Dr. Gladell Paner
AI will not replace us, especially in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. But AI can be our friend in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. How is that so? So AI can help us pre-analytical phase, for example, screening the atypical glands and then point us where the atypical glands is. And then also at the analytical phase of our diagnosis, it can be our friend who also kind of looking at the case with us and then comparing the diagnosis of AI and with our diagnosis. That's second. And third, post-analytical. It can also be a help, like for example, doing QA on our diagnosis.
- Brittani Riddle
Thank you again to my guest, Dr. Paner, for joining me. And that's all for today on the Path News Network Daily Edition, powered by the College of American Pathologists. Subscribe to this show on your favorite podcast platforms. Get more news like this in our member newsletters on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern Time. I'm Brittani Riddle. Thank you for listening. Have a great day.