OSU pathology home page

Wendy L. Frankel, MD

Kurtz Chair and Distinguished Professor

Wendy Frankel, MD

Office Phone:

614-292-5744

Judith Bowers (assistant):

614-688-8660

E-mail:

Email Dr. Frankel

Mailing Address:

Optometry Clinic / Health Sciences Faculty Offices
1664 Neil Ave, Suite 6100
Columbus, OH 43210

Biosketch

Dr. Wendy Frankel is Kurtz Chair and Distinguished Professor of Pathology, and Chair of the Department of Pathology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She also serves as Director of GI/Liver Pathology fellowship. She graduated from medical school at the University of Michigan in 1988 and trained in surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania from 1988-93. She then trained in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of California at San Diego and did her Surgical Pathology fellowship at UC San Francisco from 1993-97. She has been a faculty member of OSUWMC since 1997.

Dr. Frankel’s responsibilities at OSUWMC, in addition to her leadership roles, include clinical service on the GI pathology division and teaching residents and fellows. Her primary area of research interest is colorectal carcinoma where she has worked since 1998 in the area of colon cancer genetics. She was part of the team that carried out the Columbus-area HNPCC study to determine the prevalence of Lynch syndrome among all newly diagnosed colorectal and endometrial cancer patients. The results of this study and subsequent publications appear to be changing the standard of care for colorectal cancer patients in the United States and world as many institutions and some entire countries have now adopted our recommendations to screen these patients for Lynch syndrome using immunohistochemistry staining for the four mismatch repair genes. She is currently part of the team of researchers involved in the Ohio Colorectal Cancer Prevention Initiative (OCCPI).

She is active in national and international organizations such as United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP). She has served in several leadership roles for USCAP including the Education Committee, Board of Directors, Executive Board, Treasurer and President. In addition, she is a past president of the Rodger C. Haggitt Gastrointestinal Pathology Society. She is the GI Pathology Cadre leader for Alliance for Clinical Trials and Oncology, formerly known as, CALGB. In addition, she has published 250 papers, multiple chapters, and given numerous national and international lectures focusing on GI pathology. She has been involved in multiple grants, won many teaching awards, received the USCAP President’s Award in 2020, and was chosen to present the Luminaries in Pathology talk at the USCAP Annual meeting in 2023. She is currently President of the OSU COM Mazzaferri-Ellison Society of Master Clinicians.

Board Certifications

Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners

Diplomate of the American Board of Pathology; Certification in Combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology

Academic and Medical Appointments

2015-Present Chair of Pathology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio

2013-Present Ralph W. and Helen Kurtz Endowed Chair in Pathology, OSUWMC, Columbus, Ohio

2011-Present Distinguished Professor, Ohio State University, College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio

2008-Present Professor of Pathology, Ohio State University, College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio

2006-Present Director, GI/Liver Pathology Fellowship, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Education and Training

1996-1997 Surgical Pathology Fellowship, University of California San Francisco

1993-1996 Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency, Department of Pathology, University of California San Diego

1989-1993 Residency and Research Fellow, Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

1988-1989 Internship, Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

1984-1988 University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan; M.D. "with distinction"

Selected Publications

Search in PubMed

  • Roth M, Haraldsdottir S, Hampel H, Arnold C, Frankel WL. Discordant Mismatch Repair Protein Immunoreactivity in Lynch Syndrome-Associated Neoplasms: A Recommendation for Screening Synchronous/Metachronous Neoplasms. Am J Clin Pathol. 2016 Epub ahead of print PMID: 27357288
  • Jin M, Zhou X, Yearsley M, Frankel WL. Liver Metastases of Neuroendocrine Tumors Rarely Show Overlapping Immunoprofile with Hepatocellular Carcinomas. Endocr Pathol. 2016. Epub ahead of print PMID: 27300354
  • Haraldsdottir S, Hampel H, Wu C, Weng DY, Shields PG, Frankel WL, Pan X, de la Chapelle A, Goldberg RM, Bekaii-Saab T. Patients with colorectal cancer associated with Lynch syndrome and MLH1 promoter hypermethylation have similar prognoses. Genet Med. 2015 Epub ahead of print PMID: 26866578
  • Haraldsdottir S, Roth R, Pearlman R, Hampel, Arnold CA, Frankel, WL. Mismatch repair deficiency concordance between primary colorectal cancer and corresponding metastasis. Fam Cancer. 2016 Apr;15(2):253-60. PMID: 26666765
  • Chen W, Frankel WL, Cronley KM, Yu L, Zhou X, Yearsley MM. Significance of paneth cell metaplasia in Barrett's Esophagus: A morphologic and clinicopathologic study. Am J Clin Pathol. 2015 May; 143(5):665-71. PMID: 25873500
  • Swanson B, Marsh W, Frankel WL. A triple stain of Reticulin, Glypican-3 and Glutamine Synthetase: A useful aid in the diagnosis of liver lesions. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2015 Apr; 139(4):537-542. PMID: 25822763
  • Roth RM, Hampel H, Arnold CA, Yearsley MM, Marsh WL, Frankel WL. A Modified Lynch Syndrome Screening Algorithm in Colon Cancer: BRAF Immunohistochemistry Is Efficacious and Cost Beneficial. Am J Clin Pathol. 2015 Mar;143(3):336-343. PMID: 25696791
  • Frankel WL, Jin M. Serosal surfaces, mucin pools, and deposits, Oh my: challenges in staging colorectal carcinoma. Mod Pathol. 2015 Jan;28 Suppl 1:S95-S108. PMID: 25560604
  • Jin M, Roth R, Rock JB, Washington MK, Lehman A, Frankel WL. The Impact of Tumor Deposits on Colonic Adenocarcinoma AJCC TNM Staging and Outcome. Am J Surg Pathol. 2015 Jan;39(1):109-15. USCAP Stout award for best peer reviewed publication of the year which resolved scientific medical problems by studying their anatomic features. PMID: 25229767
  • Haraldsdottir S, Hampel H, Tomsic J, Frankel WL, Pearlman R, de la Chapelle A, Pritchard CC. Colon and Endometrial Cancers with Mismatch Repair Deficiency can Arise from Somatic, Rather Than Germline, Mutations. Gastroenterology. 2014 Dec;147(6):1308-1316. PMID: 25194673
  • Valeri N, Braconi C, Gasparini P, Murgia C, Lampis A, Paulus-Hock V, Hart JR, Ueno L, Grivennikov SI, Lovat F, Paone A, Cascione L, Sumani KM, Veronese A, Fabbri M, Carasi S, Alder H, Lanza G, Gafa’ R, Moyer MP, Ridgway RA, Cordero J, Nuovo GJ, Frankel WL, Rugge M, Fassan M, Groden J, Vogt PK, Karin M, Sansom OJ, Croce CM. MicroRNA-135b promotes cancer progression acting as a downstream effector of oncogenic pathways in colon cancer. Cancer Cell. 2014 Apr 14;25(4):469-83. PMID: 24735923
  • Chen W, Rock JB, Yearsley MM, Ferrell LD, Frankel WL. Different collagen types show distinct rates of increase from early to late stages of Hepatitis-C related liver fibrosis. Hum Pathol. 2014 Jan; 45(1):160-165. PMID: 24321525
  • Chen W, Rock JB, Yearsley MM, Hanje AJ, Frankel WL. Collagen immunostains can distinguish capsular fibrous tissue from septal fibrosis and may help stage liver fibrosis. Appl Immunohistochen Mol Morphol. 2014. Nov-Dec;22(10):735-40. PMID: 25046231
  • Jin M, Hampel H, Pilarski R, Zhou X, Peters S, Frankel WL. Phosphatase and tensin homolog immunohistochemical staining and clinical criteria for Cowden syndrome in patients with trichilemmoma or associated lesions. Am J Dermatopathol. 2013 Aug; 35(6):637-40. PMID: 23715080
  • Rock JB, Washington MK, Adsay NV, Greenson JK , Montgomery EA, Robert ME, Yantiss RK, Lehman AM, Frankel WL. Debating Deposits: An Interobserver Variability Study of Lymph Nodes and Pericolonic Tumor Deposits in Colonic Adenocarcinoma. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2014 May; 138(5):636-42. PMID: 23902577
  • Jin M, Hampel, H, Zhou XP, Schunemann L, Yearsley M, Frankel WL. BRAF V600E Mutation Analysis Simplifies the Testing Algorithm for Lynch Syndrome. Am J Clin Pathol. 2013 Aug; 140(2):177-83. PMID: 23897252
  • Huang C, Frankel WL, Doukides T, Zhou XP, Zhao W, Yearsley M. Prolapse-Related Changes Are a Confounding Factor in Misdiagnosis of Sessile Serrated Adenomas in the Rectum. Hum Pathol. 2013 Apr; 44(4):480-6. PMID: 23069257
  • Crowder CD, Sweet K, Lehman A, Frankel WL. Serrated Polyposis is an Underdiagnosed and Unclear Syndrome: The Surgical Pathologist has a Role in Improving Detection. Am J Surg Pathol. 2012; 36(8):1178-85. PMID: 22790859
  • Bloomston M, Frankel WL, Petrocca F, Volinia S, Alder H, Hagan JP, Liu CG, Bhatt D, Taccioli C, Croce CM. MicroRNA expression patterns to differentiate pancreatic adenocarcinoma from normal pancreas and chronic pancreatitis. JAMA 2007; 297(17):1901-1908. PMID: 17473300
  • Hampel H, Frankel WL, Martin E, Arnold M, Khanduja K, Kuebler P, Nakagawa H, Sotamaa K, Prior T, Westman J, Panescu J, Fix D, Lockman J, Comeras I, de la Chapelle A. Screening for the Lynch syndrome (hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer). N Eng J Med 2005; 352(18):1851-1860. PMID: 15872200