Philip E. LeBoit, MD
Professor of Clinical Pathology & Dermatopathology

As a dermatopathologist, I try to integrate clinical and histopathologic findings to arrive at meaningful diagnoses, using immunophenotypic and genotypic findings when necessary. My investigative efforts are aimed at increasing the ability of dermatopathologists to make accurate diagnoses.

I arrived back at UCSF as a faculty member in 1985, after having trained here as a resident in anatomic pathology, and then moving to New York to study dermatopathology under two superb teachers, A. Bernard Ackerman and N. Scott McNutt. In 1985, most dermatologists in the San Francisco area interpreted their own sections and used dermatopathologists for "difficult" cases. In 1987, I began an effort to increase the role of dermatopathologists in this process, an effort that continues to this day, by founding and directing the UCSF Dermatopathology Service. While the first secretary handling this service quit because she did not think it would succeed, it has grown to become one of the largest university-based dermatopathology organizations in the world, with 38,000 accessions in 1998. In 1991, Timothy McCalmont joined the service as a second dermatopathologist, and he and I are now Co-Directors. The service also consults on difficult cases for pathologists and other dermatopathologists, and these cases approximate 2,500/year.

Along the way, I have written papers about problems that I encountered in clinical practice, from new infections in HIV disease, to unusual lymphomas and lymphoproliferations in the skin, to inflammatory skin diseases, to molecular diagnosis of melanoma. The latter is an ongoing collaboration with Drs. Boris Bastian and Dan Pinkel, who have developed techniques that we are beginning to use to unlock some of the mysteries of melanocytic neoplasia.

I enjoy giving lectures, and have been invited to speak over 200 times, on every continent except Antarctica.

My desire to mark up other people's manuscripts has led me to become the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Dermatopathology, and a co-editor of Seminars in Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery. I also edited a two-volume textbook of clinical dermatology, Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery, and was the ghostwriter who redid most of the pathology sections for authors who were clinical dermatologists.

My accomplishments also include commuting across the Bay Bridge on a daily basis, without ever becoming impatient.

Selected References:

LeBoit PE. Fire your dermatopathologist! Arch Dermatol 135:137-8, 1999.
Wesselmann U, Becker LR, Broecker EB, LeBoit, PE, Bastian BC. Eosinophilic globules in Spitz nevi: No evidence for apoptosis. Am J Dermatopathol 20:551-4, 1998. [Abstract]
Bastian BC, LeBoit PE, Hamm H, Broecker E-B, Pinkel D. Chromosomal gains and losses in primary cutaneous melanomas detected by comparative genomic hybridization. Cancer Res 58:2170-5, 1998. [Abstract]
Fung MA, LeBoit PE. Light microscopic criteria for the diagnosis of early vulvar lichen sclerosus: A comparison with lichen planus. Am J Surg Pathol 22:473-8, 1998. [Abstract]
Koehler JE, Sanchez MA, Garrido CS, Whitfeld MJ, Chen FM, Berger TG, Rodriguez-Barradas MC, LeBoit PE, Tap-pero JW. Molecular epidmiology of Bartonella infections in patients with bacillary angiomatosis-peliosis. N Eng J Med 337(26):1876-83, 1997. [Abstract]
El-Shabrawi L, LeBoit PE. Basal cell carcinoma with thickened basement membrane. A variant that resembles some benign adnexal neoplasms. Am J Dermatopathol 19:568-74, 1997. [Abstract]
Harvell JD, Meehan SA, LeBoit PE. Spitz's nevi with halo reaction: a histopathologic study of 17 cases. J Cutan Pathol 24:611-9, 1997. [Abstract]