Massachusetts General Hospital | Cancer Center

Biography

Assistant in Pathology
Associate Director of Core Laboratory
Massachusetts General Hospital

Assistant Professor of Pathology
Harvard Medical School

Email: arsohani@partners.org

Dr. Sohani is a board-certified hematopathologist in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and Hematology and her clinical areas of focus include Hematopathology, Hematology and Coagulation. She serves as Medical Director of the Hematology section of the Core Laboratory. In this role, her efforts have resulted in improved operations and clinical care in a number of areas, including enhanced detection of morphologic abnormalities in peripheral blood and body fluid specimens. She also oversees the Hematology Rotation, which constitutes part of the Clinical Pathology core training curriculum. In recognition of her teaching skills, she has received several awards from Mass General Hospital pathology residents, including the 2008 and 2012 Clinical Pathology Excellence in Teaching Awards. Her deep and abiding interest in issues related to delivery of pathology services in medically underserved and resource-challenged settings has led to the development of a web-based educational and diagnostic telepathology support network for pathologists practicing in such settings, for which she actively provides ongoing support.

Updated 2/25/2013

Research

Dr. Sohani's major research interest is in the identification of novel pathologic, immunophenotypic and molecular markers in lymphoma that may help to define new clinicopathologic entities and predict tumor behavior and response to therapy.  She was the lead author on a study that was the first to describe an unusual, non-neoplastic CD4+CD8dim+ T-cell population in nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin's lymphoma (NLPHL).  The recognition of this population has enhanced the diagnostic role of flow cytometry in Hodgkin's lymphoma, and suggests a pathogenetic function for non-neoplastic T cells in this disease.  This finding is included among the diagnostic criteria for NLPHL in the 2008 WHO Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues.  Many of her ongoing studies are in collaboration with the Mass General Hospital Cancer Center, and in this capacity she recently led a multidisciplinary team of investigators in characterizing a group of high-grade B-cell neoplasms with concurrent MYC and IGH-BCL2 rearrangements.  This study currently represents the best characterized group of these rare lymphomas from a pathological standpoint.  In addition to her research interests in lymphoma, Dr. Sohani is exploring ways that telemedicine and web-based learning can be used to enhance the delivery of pathology services in resource-limited settings and provide educational support to pathologists practicing in medically under-served regions of the world.

Publications

Bibliography of Aliyah R. Sohani (Rahemtullah) via PubMed