Histopathology is the diagnosis and study of diseases of the tissues, and involves examining tissues and/or cells under a microscope. Histopathologists are responsible for making tissue diagnoses and helping clinicians manage a patient's care. It is the examination of biological tissues in order to observe the appearance of diseased cells in microscopic detail. Histopathology typically involves a biopsy, which is a procedure involving taking a small sample of tissue, usually undertaken by a pathologist, who are experts in diagnoses of diseases.

Histopathology involves the examination of sampled whole tissues under the microscope. Three main types of specimen are received by the pathology laboratory. ... This type of material is usually liquid rather than solid, and is submitted for cytology rather than histology. Histopathologists provide a diagnostic service for cancer; they handle the cells and tissues removed from suspicious ‘lumps and bumps’, identify the nature of the abnormality and, if malignant, provide information to the clinician about the type of cancer, its grade and, for some cancers, its responsiveness to certain treatments.

With the help of sophisticated imaging techniques, biopsy tissue can now be obtained from previously inaccessible sites such as the pancreas or retroperitoneum. Such topics are published in Archives of Clinical Pathology Journal.

With regards

Katherine Gray| Managing Editor
Archives of Clinical Pathology
40 Bloomsbury Way, Lower Ground Floor, London, United Kingdom
pathologyclinical@rediffmail.com