2007 Winter Meeting - London - The Pathological Society of Great ...

S5HOW TO BE A GOOD TEACHER{P} P DomizioProfessor of Pathology Education, Barts and the London, Queen Mary’sSchool of Medicine, London, United KingdomGood teachers are role models as well as educators and there is no doubt thatthey can inspire their students to go along certain career paths. There has beenmuch debate in the educational literature about what makes a good teacher, buta widely accepted definition is still lacking. Most students describe a goodteacher as accessible, enthusiastic, passionate, humorous, caring and nonjudgmental.Good teachers are learner-orientated – they take into account howmuch their students already know, they put learning into context and theyactively engage their students in the learning process. Good teachers provide asupportive, trusting and non-threatening environment in which the studentpositively enjoys learning. Giving a good lecture is an art, akin to a stageperformance in which the lecturer is protagonist and holds the audience’sattention to the end. Some of the skills involved in giving a good lecture stemfrom the lecturer’s personality, but others can be practiced and learnt. Goodlectures are well-planned, well-structured, well-delivered and properly timed.The personal rewards for being considered a good teacher are high. Atprofessional level, the climate is slowly changing with increasing recognitionand promotion of good teachers.S6How to Write a Scientific Paper and Get it Published{P} CS HerringtonUniversity of St Andrews, Fife, United KingdomThere are numerous issues that influence whether a paper gets published, butmany of these relate to the central underlying principle that it should address aspecific hypothesis, and do so in a concise, informative way. The firstimpressions of editors and reviewers are key to the success of a submission andare often determined by the title, abstract and figures: these components aretherefore worthy of particular attention. There is an increasing trend for authorsto ‘aim high’ (by which they usually mean submission to journals with a highimpact factor) and the probability of success with the major internationaljournals is increased significantly if the basic principles above are adhered to,and attention is paid to the instructions for authors for that particular journal.There are, however, no guarantees and failure to persuade one journal topublish your work should not deter you from trying others.S7Proteomics and Prostate Carcinoma{P} L EgevadInternational Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, FranceAs a result of earlier detection of prostate cancer, a majority of patients nowhave non-palpable tumors (T1c) of low grade (Gleason score 6). Consequently,some of the prognostic discrimination obtained by staging and grading is lostand there is a need for adjunctive prognostic indicators. In the search for suchtumor markers an exploration of the human proteome may be fruitful.Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) is presently the most powerfulmethod for analysis of cellular protein phenotype. Proteins are separatedaccording to their size and charge, gels are compared by image analysis, proteinspots of interest are excised and proteins identified by mass spectrometry. Onprostate samples, 2-DE has been used for mapping of differential proteinexpression of the anatomical zones, benign tissue vs. prostate cancer andcorrelations with tumor grade. Disadvantages with 2-DE are that the techniqueis time-consuming, expensive and requires large tissue samples.Non 2-DE methods, such as SELDI, ICAT and array based technologies,generally require smaller sample sizes and are more automated than 2-DE.However, with some of these methods only a limited set of proteins are detectedin each assay and concerns have been raised about protein identification anddata validation.S8The Value of Tissue Microarrays in Urological Pathology.{P} DM BerneyBarts and The London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry,London, UK, United KingdomTissue microarrays are a technique for high throughput analysis of tissues.Urological pathology offers many opportunities for TMA construction of largeseries for biomarker analysis. Prerequisites for analysis are the identification ofareas suitable for array and sampling multiple areas to allow for heterogeneity.Uses of TMA include the retrospective investigation of prognostic markers andthe potential of prospectively correlating markers with chemo andradiosensitivity to allow individualised tumour therapy in the future.This review will outline uropathological project undertaken in The OrchidTissue laboratory in a range of malignancies including germ cell neoplasms,renal tumours, squamous cell carcinoma of the penis and prostate cancer.Technical problems will be discussed.The Trans-Atlantic Prostate Group has produced an array of over 900 prostatecancer patients who had TURPs between 1991 and 1996, and treated bywatchful waiting. TMA has allowed a vast number of potential biomarkers tobe investigated. Recent advances in technology have allowed biopsy material tobe arrayed successfully. This vastly increases the power of TMAs in urologicalpathology, particularly in the prostate where retrospective biopsy series can beanalysed.Immunochemistry is not the only technique that can be used successfully inTMAs. Fluorescence ISH has shown specific chromosomal translocations inprostate TMAs, and chromogenic ISH can better correlate abnormalities withlight microscopic appearances.Winter Meeting (191 st ) 3–5 January 2007 Scientific Programme59