Messages from Kennichi Kakudo, MD, PhD to a person to be an expert of the cytopathology

The 20th ICC Sydney was over with great success. Asian Working Group companion meeting was held on the 8th of May (Figure 1), and we had the third face to face meeting. Gradually we found significant differences in thyroid practice among Asian WG members as well as between Asian and Western thyroid practice more and more. We are proudly showed our recent activities.

Multi-institutional Studies in 2018 and 2019.

1.    Bychkov A et al. Impact of noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features on the Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology: a multi-institutional study in five Asian countries. Pathology 2018; 50:411-417.

2.    Bychkov A et al. Noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features in Asian practice: Perspectives for surgical pathology and cytopathology. Endocr Pathol. 2018; 29:276-288.

3.    Vuong HG et al. Clinical impact of noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features on the risk of malignancy in the Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology: a meta-analysis of 14,153 resected thyroid nodules. Endocr Pract. 2019 [Epub ahead of print]

4.    Agarwal S et al. The prevalence and surgical outcomes of Hürthle cell lesions in fine‐needle aspirates of the thyroid: A multi-institutional study in six Asian countries. Cancer Cytopathol. 2019; 127:181-191.

5.    Liu Z et al. Interobserver and intraobserver variation in the morphological evaluation of noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary like nuclear features in Asian practice. Pathol Int. 2019 [Epub ahead of print]

6.    Kakudo K et al. To the Editor. Cytologically borderline thyroid nodules as a key target to reduce overdiagnosis and overtreatment of thyroid cancer. Arch Pathol Lab Med (Accepted for publication).

Please join us at the 58th JSCC Fall Meeting in Okayama, Japan. You and new members are also welcome to this activity. Please contact me at kakudo@thyroid.jp. The following are details for the 4th face to face meeting (the Global Asian Forum) on 16th of November in Okayama, Japan.

The Global Asian Forum: Thyroid FNA Cytology in Asian Countries.

Chairpersons:

1.    Andrey Bychkov, MD, Ph.D., Department of Pathology, Kameda Medical Center, Kamogawa, Japan,

2.    Kennichi Kakudo, MD, Ph.D., FIAC, Department of Pathology, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, Nara Hospital, Ikoma, Japan,

A welcome message by the meeting president, professor Moriya

Speakers

1.    Chan Kwon Jung, MD, Ph.D., Department of Hospital Pathology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Korea,

Topic: Nuclear features of BRAF mutated PTCs and RAS-mutated neoplasms.

2.    Shipra Agarwal, MD, DNB, Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India,

Topic: AUS/FLUS in Indian experience with thyroid FNA.

2.    Priyanthi Kumarasinghe, MD, Department of Anatomical Pathology, University of Western Australia, Australia,

Topic: BRAF testing to refine cytology categories: how and when?

4.    Huyen-Trang Vu, MD, Department of Pathology, Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,

Topic: Resection rate and risk of malignancy among TBSRTC categories in Western vs. Asian practice.

5.    Chih-yi Liu, MD, FIAC, Division of Pathology, Sijhih Cathay General Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan,

Topic: Cytological diagnosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma among Asian Working Group in Thyroid Cytology.

6.    Yaqiong Li MD Ph.D., Department of Pathology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China,

Topic: Observer variation study in the diagnosis of follicular neoplasms.

 

Professor Giordano (University of Michigan) and I were invited to have 2 lectures each in the 23rd Taiwan Joint Cancer Conference, being held in Taipei on 6th of May, 2018. We enjoied beautiful seanry of Taiwan and deep histry of China (Figure). The conference PPT files are available at http://www.twiap.org.tw/teach/content.asp?ID=1231&FDType=36. Lecture notes for my two lectures were published in the J Basic Clin Med (http://sspublications.org/index.php/JBCM) .

Dr Liu worked hard, to which many Chinese authors joint, to translate the first edition of Thyroid FNA Cytology, differential diagnoses and Pitfalls into Chinese edition (http://cms.sciencepress.cn/2017300097/index.jhtml). The Chinese version was published on 5th of May, 2018 and ceremony (https://www.91360.com/201805/9/67929.html) was held in the 2018 International Symposium on Thyroid Pathology, being held in ChangZhou, China (Figure 1). We are very happy about it (Figure 2).

The Second Symposium of the Working Group of Asian Thyroid FNA Cytology was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand on 19 January, 2018. Thanks to professor Rangdaeng, president of Thai Society of Cytology, for giving us this wonderful opprtunity. Abstracts are aveilable at http://sspublications.org/index.php/JBCM . This WG had a productive year last year and published the following list of research articles and reviews. They were: Four papers in the special issue on NIFTP in J Basic Clinical Medicine, vol 6, 2017. (open access available on line from the journal website) Nine articles in the special issue on the current practices of thyroid FNA cytology in Asian countries in the J Pathol Translat Med, November issue, 2017. More original studies were published by our members in well-recognized international journals. They were;

The Working Group of Asian Thyroid FNA Cytology had several projects and one of them become visible.  I would like to announce a special issue of Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine on Current Practices of Thyroid Fine-Needle Aspiration in Asia (http://jpatholtm.org/current/?vol=51&no=6​).  Nine authors from our Working Group published their practices introducing their practice in details. I believe this special issue will be a good sources in the future when refere thyroid practice in Asian countries.