Prof. Thomas Brenn

Dr. Thomas Brenn is Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. He graduated magna cum laude from the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg (Heidelberg, Germany) where he received his MD and PhD degrees. After postdoctoral fellowships in the Departments of Genetics and Pathology at Stanford University (Stanford, CA, USA) and residency training in Anatomic Pathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA, USA), he pursued subspecialty fellowships with Drs Phillip McKee and Christopher Fletcher in Dermatopathology, Soft Tissue Tumor Pathology and Surgical Pathology. In 2003, Dr. Brenn joined the faculty of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and was a consultant in pathology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  From 2007 to 2018, he was Consultant Dermatopathologist and Head of Dermatopathology at NHS Lothian University Hospitals Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland). Dr. Brenn is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pathology (Anatomic Pathology) and Dermatology (Dermatopathology). He is Associate Editor for Histopathology and was the Chair of the Skin Working Group of the European Society of Pathology (ESP), Chief Examiner for the RCPath Diploma in Dermatopathology and a member of the steering committee of the National Specialist EQA scheme in Dermatopathology and of the executive committee of the British Society for Dermatopathology.  He has contributed to major textbooks in Dermatology and Dermtopathology and is a co-editor of the 4^th edition of McKee’s Pathology of the Skin. His clinical and research interests are in the areas of cutaneous soft tissue tumours, skin adnexal tumours as well as melanocytic tumour pathology. 

Web Links

Edinburgh Dermatopathology Tutorial

Full publication list

Department of Pathology, University of Calagary

Selected papers

Wiedemeyer K, Guadagno A, Davey J, Brenn T. Acral Spitz Nevi: A Clinicopathologic Study of 50 Cases with Immunohistochemical Analysis of P16 and P21 Expression. Am J Surg Pathol. 2018 Mar 13. doi: 10.1097/PAS.0000000000001051. PMID: 29537991.

Griewank KG, Wiesner T, Murali R, Pischler C, Müller H, Koelsche C, Möller I, Franklin C, Cosgarea I, Sucker A, Schadendorf D, Schaller J, Horn S, Brenn T, Mentzel T. Atypical fibroxanthoma and pleomorphic dermal sarcoma harbor frequent NOTCH1/2 and FAT1 mutations and similar DNA copy number alteration profiles. Mod Pathol. 2018 Mar;31 (3):418-428. doi: 10.1038/modpathol.2017.146. Epub 2017 Nov 3. PMID: 29099504.

van der Horst MP, Garcia-Herrera A, Markiewicz D, Martin B, Calonje E, Brenn T. Squamoid Eccrine Ductal Carcinoma: A Clinicopathologic Study of 30 Cases. Am J Surg Pathol. 2016 Jun;40 (6):755-60. doi: 10.1097/PAS.0000000000000599. PMID: 26796504.

van der Horst MP, Marusic Z, Hornick JL, Luzar B, Brenn T. Morphologically low-grade spiradenocarcinoma: a clinicopathologic study of 19 cases with emphasis on outcome and MYB expression. Mod Pathol. 2015 Jul;28 (7):944-53. doi:10.1038/modpathol.2015.48. PMID: 25857824.

Miller K, Goodlad JR, Brenn T Pleomorphic dermal sarcoma: adverse histologic features predict aggressive behavior and allow distinction from atypical fibroxanthoma. Am J Surg Pathol. 2012 Sep;36 (9):1317-26. doi: 10.1097/PAS.0b013e31825359e1. PMID: 22510760.