PATH News Network Daily Edition

Is Your Lab Ready for a Surge in Cyclospora Testing?

• College of American Pathologists

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Elizabeth McMahon

Cyclospora testing is on the rise. Is your lab ready? And using AI to assess the severity of blood cancer. Plus, are you ready to vote for the CAP Board of Governors? This is Path News Network Daily edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. It's Friday, July 24th. As cyclospora outbreaks continue to make headlines, two CAP members are helping laboratory professionals understand how clinical labs detect this challenging parasite. Dr. Bobbi Pritt and Dr. Daniel Rhoads recently joined the American Society for Microbiology's Editors and Conversation podcast to discuss testing for the parasitic infection, current outbreaks, and public health response. Dr. Rhoads, who chairs the CAP's Microbiology Committee, said he noted a dramatic shift in case volume for cyclospora testing at his laboratory.

Dr. Daniel Rhoads

It's kind of wild. It went from zero to a hundred very quickly. Cyclospora testing is a sleepy little item on our test menu. We get maybe a couple a day, maybe a handful. Picks up a little bit in the summertime. But we we don't get more than a few positives a year usually. Everything changed a couple weeks ago, and now we're getting hundreds of samples a day, 50 positives a day.

Elizabeth McMahon

The episode also explores why cyclospora can be difficult to detect and what laboratory professionals need to know about testing strategies. Starting August 3rd, Pathology residents can apply for the CAP Foundation's Leadership Development Award, which provides up to $1,200 to attend a CAP meeting next year. Either the Spring Residence Forum, March 13, 2027, in Vancouver, British Columbia, or the Pathologist Leadership Summit from May 15th to 18th, 2027 in Washington, D.C. One of the foundation's oldest awards, the Leadership Development Award aims to enhance a resident's education and experience on issues challenging a pathologist. The award is available to residents actively enrolled in an accredited pathology residency program in the U.S. or Canada. While Cornell Medicine investigators are hoping they've eliminated some of the gray area in assessing patients with myelodysplastic neoplasms or MDS, a form of blood cancer that can lead to acute myeloid leukemia. Their approach, published June 30th in the journal Leukemia, uses AI technology to compare the physical location, size, and shape of every blood cell in the patient's bone marrow sample with those in healthy bone marrow. That generates a score that reflects the severity of the disease. MDS usually affects older adults, and about one-third of patients progress to the more aggressive cancer. MDS patients must undergo frequent biopsies to identify signs of remission or worsening disease. Dr. Sanjay Patel, clinical chief of hematopathology and an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the New York Med School, told the journal that, quote, it's fundamentally a chronic and progressive disease. With the current methods pathologists use to assess MDS samples, there are some clear-cut cases and a lot of gray area. And finally, in his July column for CAP Today, CAP President Dr. Jim Jai reminds members that there's an important election coming up, and it's not the one you've been hearing about on the news. August 4th is the day voting opens for pathologists to elect their next leaders on the CAP Board of Governors. Members will receive an electronic ballot from elections at vote-now.com along with information about the candidates. CAP fellows without an email address on file will receive an old school paper ballot by mail. The Board of Governors helps set the CAP's strategic direction and influences key decisions affecting the pathology profession. Watch for your ballot on August 4th. Voting closes on August 24th and every vote counts. That does it for today's Daily Edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Got a story you'd like us to cover on the Daily Edition? Write to us at stories at cap.org. We're back at 5 a.m. Eastern on Monday for another episode of the Daily Edition. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. Have a great weekend.