Place: Boston Conference Center, room 205b Time: 1.30 pm
1. The president opened the meeting, welcomed the participants and explained the agenda. No apologies were received beforehand. The minutes from the last AGM 2024 were approved.
2. The president explained the current setup of the council, as valid to the meeting. He greeted Gladell Paner, who became new North American councillor in 2024. He also congratulated Dr van Leenders, who was elected to become president elect for the next period. He went on to thank Kenneth A. Iczkowski, MD, for his services in the past six years (president elect, active presidency, past president). He then explained the composition of the council starting from April 2024, which will be under the leadership of the new president Liang Cheng. The position for European councillor is currently vacant and an announcement to apply for this position will be made soon.
3. In the last year we had eight council meetings which took place as Zoom meetings, no meeting in presence.
4. The very successful lecture series “ISUP Presents” was continued in 2024, delivering excellent diagnostic presentations and cutting edge research.
5. Conferences
a. Florence: In 2024 we conducted the highly successful multidisciplinary consensus conference on cancer precursor lesions of the genitourinary organs, which took place in Florence on September 12th. Five working groups covering prostate, bladder, renal, testis and penis pathology congregated for a full day to exchange their views. The highly informative and educative meeting provided ample opportunities for scientific exchange. Unfortunately we could not keep up with the original time plan, which was exceeded by nearly two hours. Still the consensus conference in Florence was very well attended, provided a good balance of ISUP/GUPS members. In this conference we learned that thirty seconds are usually insufficient to allow flawless voting, in future votings we should reckon with one minute per item. The president acknowledged and thanked the local organizers Maria Raspollini and Alessia Cimadamore as well as Matteo Brunelli and also Katrina Collins and Nancy Greenland from the ISUP council.
b. Cancun: ISUP provided educational lectures at the IAP meeting in Cancun, Mexico, where the GU community was served by presentations from GUPS and ISUP alike. In future meetings it will be wise to care for an appropriate break before the sessions to allow participants to have a lunchtime. The way it was organized, many participants missed out the first lectures of the ISUP session to grab some lunch.
c. On Saturday, February 8th 2025, the Singaporean IAP conducted a joint symposium to serve the community in South East Asia, this was supported by ISUP by excellent lectures delivered by Prof Paner, Prof Downes, Prof Williamson, Prof Wobker and Prof Cheng.
6. Following the highly successful meeting on urachal lesions (Dublin 2023), the ISUP urachal tumor repository is still under construction. The plan is to have two locations, cared for by Prof Paner (Chicago, USA) and Prof Reis (Essen, Germany). Supposedly the tumor repository will open up in 2025 and will start with a retrospective collection of material.
7. The president explained the collaboration between ISUP and the international collaboration on cancer reporting (ICCR), which clearly enhances the visibility of ISUP, as our label is integrated on the histopathology forms of the ICCR for genitourinary tumors.
8. ISUP/GUPS collaborations
a. The project of ISUP/GUPS collaborations, that has begun in 2023 by Dan Berney and Andres Acosta on testicular sex cord stromal tumors is now undergoing a second review. The main goal of the meeting in Boston in 2025 put together a consensus classification of testicular sex cord stromal tumors that hopefully will be included in the upcoming WHO blue book.
b. The ongoing ISUP/GUPS collaboration on indolent prostate cancer has led to a white paper, that has just published in The Platinum Journal European Urology, the president expressed gratitude to his colleague president of GUPS, Prof Rajal Shah, and also Gladell Paner, who has helped intensively, to propel this project to a successful end.
c. The expert consultation conference on intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDCP) had taken place the day before in Boston. Great attendance with 150 participants in present with an additional 110 participants online. He explained the agenda, highlighted the invaluable input by the core leading team, which included Murali Varma (Cardiff, UK), Gladell Paner (Chicago. USA) and Ming Zhou (York, USA). He particularly thanked the president of the GUPS, Prof Rajal Shah, who shared the vision of having two distinct but collaborating societies.
9. Report of the secretary
The secretary Michelle Downes explained the numbers of our members. Currently we have 325 regular members plus 430 junior members. The mailing list does still contain approximately 2000 members. She explained that the website is undergoing an update, as the current website has challenges with its functionality, so a rebuild is more than warranted. A new webmaster needs to be confirmed. She informed about the upcoming election for the position of European councillor.
10. Report of the treasurer
The treasurer Nancy Greenland explained the financial situation of the society, which appears solid.
11. Message of the incoming president
Prof Liang Cheng thanked his predecessors for the great work done and explained that he wanted to further pursue the path of excellence in GU pathology, providing great lectures and consensus conferences in the future, also seeking collaboration with our sister society GUPS.
12. ISUP stipend award
The International Society of Urological Pathology stipends are awarded annually to outstanding trainees in pathology who have demonstrated interest in urologic pathology. Three awards are currently granted each year and are utilized by recipients to either attend a national or international meeting with a urologic pathology focus or towards travel to study with an expert in urologic pathology at another institution. This was explained by Prof Stephen Smith (Virginia). The 2025 ISUP stipend award winners were Dr Sofia Portillo, Dr Kara Tanaka and Dr Burak Tekin. Prof Smith closed the presentations with his thanks to the ISUP stipend award committee, which included Prof Trevor Flood, Prof Arndt Hartmann, Prof Chisato Ohe and Prof Puay Hoon Tan.
13. Excellence in Urological Pathology Trainee Research awards
Prof Kenneth Iczkowski went on to hand over the Excellence in Urological Pathology Trainee Research awards, which were awarded to Priti Agarwal, Bashar Aldaraiseh, Michael McCarthy and Kazuki Kioga.
14. Adjournment
The president thanked everyone for coming and for the great collaboration in the past two years. The AGM closed on 1.59pm.
Bonn, 7th of April, 2025
Glen Kristiansen, M.D.
Past president of the ISUP