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Surgical Pathology

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Pathology: Historical and Contemporary Aspects

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Abstract

Surgical pathologists examine gross specimens with diseases excised by surgeons as well as small biopsy specimens and process them for microscopic examination in order to make a diagnosis and to quantify the amount of neoplasms in the resected specimens. Surgical pathologists also study and diagnose many nonneoplastic lesions such as inflammatory and degenerative diseases. When examining neoplasms, the surgical pathologist documents the size of the neoplasm; for cancers, they determine the depth of invasion and the quality of the margins, and decide if there is invasive growth of the cancer into lymphatic and vascular channels with spread into lymph nodes. If the patient was treated before surgery, they document the response of the cancer to prior radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Today, the immunohistochemical and molecular features of neoplasms and other lesions are also assessed by the pathologist and this assists clinicians in deciding about further therapy. In addition to larger resected gross specimens, the surgical pathologist also examines biopsy specimens performed for diagnostic purposes. Another major role of the surgical pathologists is in the rapid evaluation of frozen sections of tissues to provide rapid feedback to the surgeon about the presence of tumor and type of tumors that the patient has and in some case about the adequacy of the tumor margins. Needle biopsies of tumors and other lesions are frequently interpreted by the surgical pathologist. The handling and interpretation of needle biopsies depend on the interactions between the pathologist, radiologist, surgeon, and other clinicians.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology & Lab Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Ricardo V. Lloyd

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  1. Ricardo V. Lloyd
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Lloyd, R.V. (2023). Surgical Pathology. In: Pathology: Historical and Contemporary Aspects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39554-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39554-3_3

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-39554-3

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