Sharon Ann Whelan Weiss[1] is an American pathologist who is best known for her contribution to the subspecialty of soft tissue pathology. She is the main author of Soft Tissue Tumors,[2] one of the most widely used textbooks in the field of sarcoma and soft tissue pathology. She is also well known for her seminal descriptions of multiple soft tissuetumors, such as epithelioid hemangioendothelioma and pleomorphichyalinizing angiectatic tumor of soft parts ("PHAT" which is categorized as a rare and locally aggressive neoplasm occurring in the lower extremities of a patient)[3] among others. She has also mentored and trained other well-known soft tissue pathologists.[4]
From 1976 to 1989 she worked as a soft tissue pathologist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) under the mentoring of Dr. Franz Enzinger, one of the fathers of the field of soft tissue pathology. In 1989 she moved to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she served as the A. James French Professor of Pathology, Director of Anatomic Pathology, and Chief of Surgical Pathology.[1] In 1998 she became Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.[5] She is the director of the expert consultation service at Emory University Hospital, where she provides diagnostic second opinions on sarcomas and other soft tissue pathology cases.[7] She is also the Associate Dean for Faculty Development, a position she has held since 2006.[8]
Initial characterization of new soft tissue pathologic entities
Her contributions to the field have been described as "monumental".[9] She was the first to describe/characterize the following soft tissue pathologic entities:
^MD, Sharon W. Weiss; FACG, John R. Goldblum MD FCAP FASCP; MD, Andrew L. Folpe (14 December 2007). Enzinger and Weiss's Soft Tissue Tumors, 5e. Mosby. ISBN978-0323046282.
^Yamamoto A., Kikuchi Y., Abe S., Ishida T., Kaminaga T. High FDG Uptake in Pleomorphic Hyalinizing Angiectatic Tumor. Clin. Nucl. Med.. 2020;45(5):407-409. doi:10.1097/RLU.0000000000003001
^Hastings, Hope; Goldblum, John R. (March 13, 2017). "Perspectives on Low-grade Sarcomas: The Extraordinary Contributions of Sharon W. Weiss, MD". Advances in Anatomic Pathology. 24 (4): 195–200. doi:10.1097/PAP.0000000000000145. PMID28291056. S2CID4297802.
^Zukerberg, Lawrence R.; Nickoloff, Brian J.; Weiss, Sharon W. (1993). "Kaposiform Hemangioendothelioma of Infancy and Childhood: An Aggressive Neoplasm Associated with Kasabach-Merritt Syndrome and Lymphangiomatosis". The American Journal of Surgical Pathology. 17 (4): 321–8. doi:10.1097/00000478-199304000-00001. PMID8494101. S2CID29513482.
^Smith, Mark E. F.; Fisher, Cyril; Weiss, Sharon W. (1996). "Pleomorphic Hyalinizing Angiectatic Tumor of Soft Parts". The American Journal of Surgical Pathology. 20 (1): 21–9. doi:10.1097/00000478-199601000-00002. PMID8540605.
^Perkins, Philip; Weiss, Sharon W. (1996). "Spindle Cell Hemangioendothelioma". The American Journal of Surgical Pathology. 20 (10): 1196–204. doi:10.1097/00000478-199610000-00004. PMID8827025.