Associate Professor

Michelle Downes

Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology

MB BCh BAO, MRCSI, MD, FRCPC

Publications

Location

Sunnybrook Health Science Centre

Address

2075 Bayview Ave., Department of Anat Pathology, E417, Toronto, Ontario Canada M4N 3M5

Research Interests

Cancer, Genetics Genomics & Proteomics

Clinical Interests

Pathology: Genitourinary, Pathology: Anatomical

Appointment Status

Primary

Dr. Downes graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Medical School in 2002 with first class honours. She undertook her surgical training in Dublin and was awarded her membership to the Royal College of Surgeons in 2005 (MRCSI).

Following this she was a research fellow at the Conway Institute, University College Dublin and was awarded her doctoral thesis (MD) in 2008 for research into prostate cancer. She commenced training in anatomic pathology in Dublin in 2007 and completed her subspecialty fellowship in urologic pathology at University Health Network, Toronto (2012-2013).

She was awarded her FRCPC in anatomic pathology in 2013. She practices as a urologic pathologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto.

Research Synopsis

My research interests are in prognostic and predictive biomarkers of urologic malignancy particularly in the prostate and bladder with a focus on immune infiltrates and determinants of therapeutic response. I also work with collaborators looking at radiology- pathology correlation and pre-clinical research in prostate cancer.

Recent Publications

Selected list of publications

Downes MR, Slodkowska E, Jungbluth A, Katabi N, Xu B. ”Inter- and intra-observer agreement of PD-L1 scoring in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, urothelial carcinoma and breast carcinoma”. Histopathology 2019 (accepted).

Ray J, Hoey C, Huang X, Jeon J, Downes MR, Taeb S, Boutros P, Liu S. “Micro-RNA-198 suppresses prostate tumorigenesis via targeting Mindbomb-1”. Oncol Rpt 2019 (accepted).

Jeon J, Olkhov- Mitsel E, Xie H, Yao CQ, Zhao F, Jahangiri S, Cuizon C, Scarcello S, Jeyapala R, Watson JD, Fraser M, Ray J, Commisso K, Loblaw A, Fleshner NE, Bristow RG, Downes M, Vesprini D, Liu S, Bapat B, Boutros PC. “Temporal stability and prognostic biomarker potential of the prostate cancer urine transc riptome”. J Natl Cancer Inst 2019 (accepted). PMID: 31161221.

Downes MR, Xu B, van der Kwast TH. “Gleason grade patterns in nodal metastasis and corresponding prostatectomy specimens: impact on patient outcome”. Histopathology 2019 (accepted). PMID: 31177561.

Yip S, Christofides A, Banerji M, Downes MR, Izevbaye I, Lo B, MacMillan A, McCuaig J, Yousef GY, Spatz A. “A Canadian guideline on the use of next generation sequencing in oncology”. Curr Oncol 2019; 26:e241-254. PMID: 31043833.

Zhang M, Milot L, Khalvati F, Sugar L, Downes M, Baig SM, Klotz L, Haider MA. “Incremental value of increasing biopsy cores per target with MRI informed transrectal ultrasound prostate biopsy”. Radiology 2019; 291:83-89. PMID: 30694165.

Bigras G, Downes MR, Tavassoli P, Fathers K, Xue C, Demarco P, Cheung C. “Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in tumour-infiltrating immune cells of invasive urothelial carcinoma in Canadian patients”. Can J Path 2019; 1:44-57.

Hahn E, Liu SK, Vesprini D, Xu B, Downes MR. “Immune infiltrates and PD-L1 expression in treatment naïve acinar prostatic adenocarcinoma: an exploratory analysis”. J Clin Pathol 2018; 71:1023-1027. PMID: 30257853.

Masoomian M, Downes MR, Evans A, Cheung C, Sweet J, Fleshner N, Maganti M, van der Kwast TH. “Concordance in the biopsy, prostatectomy reporting of cribriform carcinoma and intraductal carcinoma”. Histopathology 2019; 74:474-482. PMID: 30160779.

Wang C, Hahn E, Slodkowska E, Eskander A, Enepekides D, Higgins K, Vesprini D, Liu SK, Downes MR, Xu B. “Reproducible PD-L1 immunohistochemistry interpretation across various types of GU and head/neck cancers, antibody clones and tissue preparations”. Human Pathology 2018; 82:131-139. PMID: 30075156.

Hodgson A, Liu SK, Vesprini D, Xu B, Downes MR. “Basal subtype bladder tumours are immunophenotypically hot”. Histopathology 2018; 73: 748-757. PMID: 29947424.

Saleeb R, Farag M, Lichner Z, Brimo F, Bartlett J, Bjarnason G, Finelli A, Rontondo F, Downes MR, Yousef GM. “Modulating ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters in papillary renal cell carcinoma type 2 enhances its response to targeted molecular therapy”. Molecular Oncology 2018; 12:1673-1688. PMID: 29896907.

Brimo F, Downes MR, Berman D, Athanazio D, Yilmaz A, Hahn E, Solanki S, Jamaspishvili T, Kassouf W, Trpkov K. “Pathologic prognostic factors in radical cystectomy post neo-adjuvant chemotherapy." Histopathology 2018; 73:732-740. PMID: 29776013.

Hodgson A, Slodkowska E, Jungbluth A, Liu SK, Vesprini D, Enepekides D, Higgins K, Katabi N, Xu B, Downes MR.“PD-L1 immunohistochemistry assay concordance in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder and hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma." AJSP 2018; 42:1059-1066. PMID: 29750666.

Ionescu D, Downes MR, Christofides A, Tsao M. “Harmonization of PD-L1 testing in oncology: a Canadian pathologist perspective.” Curr Oncol 2018, 3(e): 209-216. PMID: 29962847.