Events in 2023

CONGRESS 2023 - Molecular Pathology Service Delivery in Cancer: Focus on Next General Sequencing

27/09/2023
NGS for molecular profiling of cancer in routine practice.

There is legitimate expectation that molecular profiling of cancers can bring precious information to guide the treatment.

The clinically relevant alterations are of varied types: gene mutations, copy numbers, rearrangements, but also protein levels of expression. Profiling of tumours in routine practice is complex logistically, due to the high number of patients and targets, the small size of the samples and the quick turn around time required. An exhaustive assessment requires a variety of platforms.

Furthermore, it becomes relevant to repeat profiling on tissue and on blood during the patient’s treatment.

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) offers the possibility of multiplex testing, with high sensitivity and specificity. There are multiple approaches: whole genome sequencing, whole exome sequencing and panels of varied sizes.

In practice, the focus is to concentrate on providing an exhaustive clinically relevant assessment for all patients, which is guided, for each type of tumour, by WHO and NICE or equivalent guidelines.

There has been initially an excess of enthusiasm about what NGS could offer in routine practice; the technology had yet not reached the stage of being implementable within clinical practice without significantly destabilising the management.

However, thanks to significant improvement, including automation of the process, efficient IT and Bioinformatics, NGS is now safely implementable.

Pending a coherent political and funding approach, molecular diagnostic laboratories are able to provide high throughout sequencing of tumours on real life tissue samples and on blood.

It is important to mention that the molecular diagnostic laboratories also need to maintain single gene testing, immunohistochemistry, FISH and to implement artificial intelligence based assays on tissue, which will be essential and complementary to NGS testing.

The results of the molecular profiling will need to be transcribed in a comprehensive, integrated and clinically relevant report.

CONGRESS 2023 - Monkeypox case management/infection control

27/09/2023
Monkeypox case management/infection control

CONGRESS 2023 - Career and qualification progression in virology

27/09/2023
The dynamic of virological diagnosis has transformed dramatically over the past few years in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, with significant changes to equipment and technology, workforce, workload and expertise. This presentation looks at those changes and focuses on the challenges observed and how these will continue over the coming years for virology departments across the country.

CONGRESS 2023 - What is ISO 22367 and how can it help the laboratory comply with the risk requirements of ISO15189

27/09/2023
What is ISO 22367 and how can it help the laboratory comply with the risk requirements of ISO15189

CONGRESS 2023 - Myositis antibodies: are we missing something?

27/09/2023
A myositis-related autoantibody can now be identified in the majority of patients with myositis. They identify homogeneous patient subgroups and are key tools in developing a personalised approach to disease management. There is substantial clinical interest in exploiting myositis autoantibodies as biomarkers, and consequently, a large number of commercial assays have been developed for their detection. Several different commercial assays have now been developed to detect myositis relevant autoantibodies. Many have been developed with the practicalities of clinical practice in mind, offering rapid, affordable, and often multiplex testing. Despite this progress, the perfect system has yet to be realised.

Commercial testing systems do not detect all known myositis relevant autoantibodies and concerns have been raised about the sensitivity and specificity of some assays, including to their ability detect some autoantibodies strongly associated with malignancy and ILD; important causes of mortality and morbidity.

The advantages and disadvantages of different myositis autoantibody testing systems will be discussed. Evidence for the reliability of different types of assays in comparison to immunoprecipitation, as the reference standard, will be reviewed along with testing strategies that make the most of existing technology.

CONGRESS 2023 - Pre-Analytical – Tissue Requirements/Fixation – To enable molecular pathology

27/09/2023
This presentation will give delegates attending an:

Overview of the pre-analytical processing pathway and potential risks associated with each stage.
Historical/current/prospective optimisation of the pre-analytical pathway.
Understanding of the near-future perspectives for standardisation-will technologies such image analysis and spatial profiling affect the practice of pathology laboratories.

CONGRESS 2023 - CE and UKCA certification – what they mean and the implications for pathology

27/09/2023
There are complex regulatory changes taking place across the UK and the EU, which could have a significant impact on laboratory services. This session will cover what you need to know to keep on top of this and know what actions you should be taking for compliance.

CONGRESS 2023 - It’s life, but not as we know it. Emerging parasitic diseases

27/09/2023
It’s life, but not as we know it. Emerging parasitic diseases

CONGRESS 2023 - COVID – current issues

27/09/2023
COVID – current issues

CONGRESS 2023 - Next-generation molecular diagnostics: Leveraging digital technologies to enhance multiplexing in real-time PCR

27/09/2023
Next-generation molecular diagnostics: Leveraging digital technologies to enhance multiplexing in real-time PCR