Having a Blast? Acute Leukemia and Beyond

 

In the current era, a diagnosis of acute leukemia is faced with many challenges associated with rapidly evolving scientific and technological discoveries leading to new ancillary testing and reporting guidelines, as well as classification systems. To meet these challenges, hematopathologists in all practice settings need to be aware of the most important developments, especially those associated with changes in patients' clinical management. This lecture will present a comprehensive workup of three clinical cases presenting with increased blasts with a specific emphasis on critical and actionable phenotypic and genetic information that can help guide clinicians’ use of novel therapies and thereby improve patient outcome.

Originally presented on February 6, 2023, in Park City, Utah.

Lecture Presenter

Olga Pozdnyakova, MD, PhD

Olga Pozdnyakova, MD, PhD

Associate Pathologist
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Associate Medical Director of the Clinical Hematology Laboratory
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Medical Director
Physicians Diagnostic Labs
Associate Professor, Pathology
Harvard Medical School

Dr. Olga Pozdnyakova is an associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and a diagnostic hematopathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She serves as the medical director of the Hematology Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Physician Diagnostics Labs at the Brigham Health Harbor Medical Associates. Dr. Pozdnyakova is an author of over 90 peer-reviewed publications and reviews. She has authored chapters on the topic of myeloid neoplasm in several fundamental pathology textbooks, such as Diagnostic Histopathology of Tumors, Wintrobe’s Atlas of Clinical Hematology, Diagnosis of Blood and Bone Marrow Disorders, and Diagnostic Bone Marrow Hematopathology, and is a coauthor of the textbook Hematopathology: A Volume in the High Yield Pathology Series. She serves as a vice-chair of the College of American Pathologists Clinical Hematology and Microscopy Committee. Dr. Pozdnyakova has lectured on various topics at numerous national and international pathology meetings and educational courses.

Objectives

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

  • Recognize blood and/or bone marrow smears with increased blasts and identify important morphologic clues
  • Appropriately apply and interpret pertinent ancillary methods to cases presenting with increased blasts
  • Discuss the diagnostic and prognostic significance of ancillary testing

Sponsored by:

University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, and ARUP Laboratories