The 14th Spring Seminar of the Korean Pathologists Association of North America

This Special Section is a compilation of the lectures on gastrointestinal and pancreaticobiliary pathology presented at the 14th annual spring seminar of the Korean Pathologists Association of North America (KOPANA). This seminar was held in conjunction with the 104th annual meeting of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) from March 19–21, 2015, in Boston, Massachusetts.There are 6 articles presented in this Special Section. The first by Ahn and Park presents recent updates in gastric pathology, including a definition of gastric preneoplastic lesions, various morphologic types of gastric adenocarcinomas, and important histopathologic features of endoscopic submucosal dissection specimens. In the second, Bae and colleagues describe 2 different morphologic patterns of multistep carcinogenesis with implications for 3 different molecular pathways of carcinogenesis in colorectal cancers (CRCs). This article aims to provide a better understanding of the differences in CRCs affecting different colonic sites with regard to age of onset, sex, race, and geographic area, thus further elucidating the different clinicopathologic features of CRCs in association with the proposed molecular carcinogenesis pathways. Next, Lee and colleagues address various clinical and surgical aspects of idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that are pertinent to practicing pathologists. Also, topics such as IBD in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis and the current status of IBD in Asia are briefly reviewed. The article by Jang and Ahn introduces the concept of tumoral and flat intraepithelial neoplasia to describe various premalignant lesions of the pancreatobiliary region. This dichotomous concept is proposed to further understand the biologic behavior of premalignant lesions of pancreatobiliary tract, ampulla of Vater, and gallbladder. The article outlines the histopathologic spectrum of changes encountered in tumoral and flat intraepithelial neoplasia, reflecting on the inherent differences in the genetic profiles of these groups of premalignant lesions. In the fifth article, Kim and Hong put forth recent updates on neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal and pancreatobiliary tracts in concordance with the updates in this category of tumors proposed in the 2010 World Health Organization classification scheme. In this review, they address issues dealing with grading and prognostic markers of the neuroendocrine tumors. Finally, Wang and Park present a brief history of successes and failures of targeted therapeutic strategies for gastrointestinal malignancies. They also present information about the next generation of clinical oncology trial designs. The next 10 years of precision medicine oncology trials, which are guided by genomic testing of tumors, are certainly deemed to bear a significant impact on the practice of surgical pathology as it exists today. Pathologists have to equip themselves with the requisite skills to effectively deal with new emerging roles and responsibilities in this era of precision medicine.KOPANA was founded in 1992 and by 2001 had a membership of more than 200 Korean pathologists practicing in North America in a variety of venues such as universities, community hospitals, private laboratories, and research institutes. Currently, about 50 American pathologists of Korean heritage (Korean American pathologists) are KOPANA members and their number is growing. Now is an important transition time for KOPANA, as considerable numbers of our older members have retired or are approaching retirement.Fifteen years ago, KOPANA began convening its spring seminar in conjunction with the annual meeting of USCAP to provide opportunities for networking, education, and enjoyment for our members. Our spring seminar has always been an excellent educational event for both our members and pathologists from Korea. Each year our invited speakers include not only our Korean American members but also pathologists in Korea. This has been a perfect venue for professional networking between pathologists in 2 geographic areas.The Korean Society of Pathologists (KSP) was founded in 1946 and currently has about 1100 members. The KSP mission is to provide pathologists with high-quality continuing medical education (CME). This is accomplished by supporting a broad range of CME programs including spring and fall annual meetings, 16 subspecialty study groups, and 4 regional societies. The Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine (http://www.jpatholtm.org) is KSP's peer-reviewed, international scientific journal that is focused on introducing and evaluating new knowledge and methodologies. KSP also plays a central role in the nationwide quality assurance and accreditation system and currently inspects and accredits more than 200 hospitals and commercial laboratories under the authority of the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare. KSP became a member of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP) in 1982 and hosted the 8th Asia Pacific IAP Congress in 2013 in Busan, Korea.On behalf of KOPANA and KSP, we would like to express our appreciation to the editorial board of Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine for its invitation to publish the content of the lectures from our meeting in this forum. We hope this Special Section will be of great benefit to readers of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and practicing pathologists everywhere.

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