David S. Klimstra, MD, Attending Pathologist and Chairman, Department of Pathology

James Ewing Alumni Chair in Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Description:  The presentation will review the current classification of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms and discuss issues in diagnosis and grading.  The importance of differentiation will be stressed, and genomic information will be presented to justify the dichotomous distinction of well and poorly differentiated neoplasms and aid in their distinction.  Finally, current efforts to identify therapeutic biomarkers will be examined.

Bio:  Dr. Klimstra is an Attending Pathologist and Chairman of the Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and also a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He received his MD degree and completed his Anatomic Pathology residency at Yale University, and undertook fellowship training in oncologic surgical pathology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is an internationally recognized expert on the pathology of tumors of the digestive system, pancreas, liver, and neuroendocrine system. His research focuses on the correlation of morphological and immunohistochemical features of tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, biliary tree, and (most notably) pancreas with their clinical and molecular characteristics. He has contributed to the recent WHO classifications of pancreatic, gastrointestinal, and neuroendocrine tumors. Dr. Klimstra has published over 425 primary articles and has co-authored the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology tumor fascicles on Tumors of the Pancreas and Tumors of the Gallbladder, Extrahepatic Bile Ducts, and Ampulla of Vater, and he participated in the most recent WHO classifications of tumors of the Digestive System and of the Endocrine Organs. He has lectured world-wide on topics related to tumor pathology, and he has received several teaching awards.