Overview
Experience and expertise
Our faculty members are subspecialty trained in gastrointestinal, hepatic and pancreatobiliary pathology with years of subspecialty practice in a challenging multidisciplinary academic environment. Their interests cover the range of diseases, including Barrett’s esophagus; inflammatory bowel disease; cancer and precancerous conditions; mesenchymal lesions; hepatic and pancreatic diseases; and transplantation pathology. Attracting consultations from across the United States and internationally, this service provides expert diagnosis and second opinions on more than 4,000 cases annually, including the most rare and complex pathology in this field. We also provide pathologic interpretations for numerous large NIH and industry-funded gastrointestinal research trials each year and process more than 40,000 gastrointestinal, hepatic and pancreaticobiliary cases annually in our clinical practice at Cleveland Clinic.
Specialized Capabilities
In addition to conventional techniques for evaluation of gastrointestinal, hepatic and pancreaticobiliary specimens, our laboratory offers an extensive in-house immunohistochemical test menu and molecular pathology testing, allowing for accurate diagnoses and prognosis of gastrointestinal neoplasia.
- Mismatch repair protein expression by immunohistochemistry (hMLH1, hMSH2, hMSH6 and PMS2).
- Microsatellite instability (MSI) evaluated by PCR (molecular).
- KRAS codon 12/13 mutation (Sanger sequencing molecular).
- BRAF V600 mutation (Sanger sequencing molecular).
- HER2 immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for gastric and GE junction carcinoma.
Gastrointestinal pathology staff
Hepatic & pancreatobiliary pathology
The Hepatic & Pancreatobiliary Pathology (HPB) Pathology Service provides diagnostic histopathology for biopsy and resection specimens from the liver, biliary tree and pancreas. Seven surgical pathologists with specialty expertise in liver, biliary, and pancreas pathology interpret over 12,000 HPB specimens annually and are actively involved in local, national and international research and teaching activities. Specialty interests among the HPB pathologists include viral hepatitis; fatty liver disease; primary biliary diseases; other chronic liver diseases; and hepatic, pancreatic and biliary tumors. They also have expertise in allograft dysfunction after liver and pancreas transplantation and provide comprehensive consultation on these cases. Our pathologists hold joint appointments and work closely with the highly regarded Cleveland Clinic liver transplant program, supporting the diagnostic needs for the some 120 patients undergoing liver transplantation every year. Selected in-house and consult cases are reviewed regularly by the team in departmental consensus conferences and at multidisciplinary conferences. A weekly multidisciplinary liver pathology review conference is held weekly in the department and provides a venue for clinical care, collaboration and education of providers and trainees from pathology, surgery, pharmacy, and gastroenterology and hepatology.
Our pathologists hold positions in the premier professional organizations in their field and frequently serve as guest lecturers and speakers at national and international pathology meetings and clinical gastrointestinal, hepatic and transplantation conferences. They also publish extensively in leading medical journals and have authored several book chapters in the field.
