Brain Tumour Pathology For Post Graduates

Studying neuropathology can be tough. A postgraduate is expected to grasp the nuances of brain anatomy, radiology and pathology, often all at one go. And of late, it’s taken for granted that the student would, on such occasions, transform into a molecular scientist too! This happens during routine reporting sessions, or more often, at slide seminars where the need to gather pertinent diagnostic information becomes urgent . In times like these, the standard issue surgical pathology books feel inadequate, while reference texts appear daunting. Handbooks like this are meant to fill the void, serving up pertinent pathological input along with comprehensive information on the ancillary diagnostic procedures that contribute to a final diagnosis.
But the Pathologist-in-training is not the only target audience of this book. Consultants working with a narrow range of immunohistochemical markers (sans FISH/Sanger sequencing backup) may benefit as well. In such situations, for instance, it may be preferable to sign out a glial tumour as “consistent with oligodendroglioma, NOS (CNS WHO grade 3)” with additional advice for gene sequencing rather than call it an “anaplastic oligodendroglioma grade III” outright, however convincing the histology may look. Also, with Artificial Intelligence entering neuropathology in a big way, a knowledge of the applicability of novel techniques like NGS and promoter methylation assays is proving increasingly necessary. The subsequent chapters highlight such diagnostic issues.

That about sums up the spirit of this manual. I had a fun time penning these notes. Hope you, the reader, gain from the pages.

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