‘Pathologists, oncologists should interact more’

Nagpur: Pathology forms the backbone of diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of the effectiveness of treatment of cancer. Information from pathological laboratories and radioligcal scans can help oncologists decide treatment strategies. This calls for pathologists and oncologists to interact more for providing better cancer treatment.
This was discussed during a recent CME organized by Vidarbha Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists (VAPM) on head and neck pathology.Faculties for the event included renowned histopathologist Dr Anita Borges, pathologist Dr Shubhada Kane, professor Geeta Vemugati, oncosurgeon Dr Abhishek Vaidya, pathologists Dr R Ravi, Dr Arun Bangadia, Dr Girish Moghe, Dr Kamayani Deshpande, Dr Swati Kulkarni and Dr Anju Mundhada.
“Pathology and radiology are the two backbones of diagnosis and treatment for cancer. They are the two pillars that provide information which can help decide further course of treatment. Surgeons depend a lot on these reports in evaluating the success of treatment,” said Dr Vaidya. He added that there needs to be more interaction of pathologists and oncologists.
Dr Borges agreed. “There are times when patients come with a swelling in the neck and we know it is cancer. We also know that it is metastatic, that it has travelled towards the neck from some other part of the body, but we don’t know the primary site of illness. Sometimes, simply looking at the tissue samples can help us ascertain the primary site of cancer,” she said. Situations like these makes it easier to decide treatment options, making it important for surgeons and pathologists to discuss the strategies of treatment.
“One of the limitations in the reports being as useful as they can be is there being no standard way of writing them. There is a reason for having standards and guidelines that will convey all useful information and helps everybody involved in the treatment to speak the same language,” said Dr Kane, who is also the head of the pathology department at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH).
She said that TMH has already released one template that can be used as a checklist to ensure that a thorough check of all possible factors of a cancer patient has been done. “In an endeavour to make ideal reporting of histopathology related to cancer, we will soon be coming out with a more detailed and elaborate template. Such steps are very helpful when decisions are taken by specialists from multiple disciplines,” she said.
IN A NUTSHELL
* Pathology and radiology are the two backbones of diagnosis and treatment for cancer
* Information from pathological laboratories and radioligcal scans help oncologists decide treatment strategies
* Surgeons depend a lot on these reports in evaluating the success of treatment
*Experts feel there needs to be more interaction of pathologists and oncologists