Posted on behalf of the ASC:
The 2011 ASCT Wage and Employment Survey has been updated to provide a much more comprehensive picture of wages, employment status and practice patterns in our industry.

Draft Recommendations for Cervical Cancer Screening and Molecular Testing Now Available for Open Comment Until Wednesday, Nov 9th.

The ACS, ASCCP, ASCP and USPHSTF have provided survey forms for submission of comments during this 3 week period. Public comments will be discussed at the Cervical Cancer Screening and Prevention: The Role of Molecular Testing Symposium to be held at the National Institutes of Health Neurosciences Center in Rockville, Maryland on November 17-19, 2011.

To review these guidelines, please follow this link.

A preliminary study of the potential of tree classifiers in triage of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. Anal Quant Cytol Histol. 2011 Jun;33(3):132-40
Authors: Karakitsos P, Pouliakis A, Meristoudis C, Margari N, Kassanos D, Kyrgiou M, Panayiotides JG, Paraskevaidis E

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential value of tree classifiers for the triage of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions.

STUDY DESIGN: The dataset comprised 808 histologically confirmed cases having a complete range of the cytologic sample assessments--liquid-based cytology, reflex human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA test, E6/E7 HPV mRNA test, and p16 immunocytochemical examinations. Data include 488 histologically negative (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia CIN 1 and below) or clinically negative cases and 320 with histologic diagnosis of CIN 2 or worse. Cytologic diagnosis was made according to the criteria of the Bethesda System. Cases were classified in two groups according to histology: those with CIN 2 or worse and those with CIN 1 and below. Fifty percent were randomly selected as a training set and the remaining were as a test set.

RESULTS: Application of tree classifier on the test set gave correct classification of 66.9% for CIN 2 and above cases and 97.3% for CIN 1 and below, producing overall accuracy of 91.5%, outperforming cytologic diagnosis alone.

CONCLUSION: Application of tree classifiers, based on standard cytologic diagnosis and expression of studied biomarkers, produces improved classification results for cervical precancerous lesions and cancer diagnosis and

PMID: 21980616

HPV Testing Algorithms Open Mic Session
November 6, 2011 @ 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

There is still time to register for the Molecular Biology Board Preparation course to be held at MD Anderson Cancer Center with the conference on Saturday, August 13th and a hands-on workshop on Sunday, August 14th. CMLE credits from the American Society of Cytopathology have been approved for 6.5 credits for the conference portion and 5.5 for the workshop on Saturday. Deadline for registration is August 5th, but don't wait, space is limited. See the program information attached or visit our website.

 

Posted with permission on behalf of:
Stephanie Hamilton, Ed.D., SCT(ASCP), MB(ASCP)
Program Director and Assistant Professor
Cytotechnology Program
MD Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Blvd., Unit 2
Houston, Texas 77030
713-563-3480 (office phone)
713-745-3337 (office fax)

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