Pathological anatomy
Pathological anatomy - Description
Anatomy is the medical specialty that focuses on the study of lesions in pathological tissues collected from living patients or from cadavers. It is practised at CHIREC's various operational sites.
Pathological anatomy (sometimes abbreviated to "anapath") is the study of macroscopic and microscopic lesions using tissues or fluids gathered from living patients during surgical interventions, endoscopic or surgical biopsies, smears (gynaecological or other) or needle biopsies.
Pathological anatomy, sometimes wrongly called "pathology", is a medical specialty misunderstood by the public but still vitally important, particularly in the treatment of cancer. Its aim is to analyse, essentially under the microscope, tissue and tumour samples taken from patients, and to use these to work out the diagnosis and the main factors determining the seriousness of the cancer. This makes a major contribution to treatment decisions.