The Importance of Pathology

Pathology is an incredibly important field in medicine, as it focuses on the causes and development of diseases, as well as how these affect health and the human body. Doctors would be practically crippled in doing their jobs if they did not have pathologists or pathology laboratory services backing them up. Here are a few reasons why pathology is so crucial:

Pathologists: The Doctors of Doctors

Although oncologists are doctors whose expertise lies in diagnosing, understanding, and treating cancer, many of the principles that they use are linked to pathology. In fact, pathologists are sometimes called the “doctors' doctors” because their specialized knowledge in the diagnosis, cause, development, and characteristics of disease is applied in various branches of the medical field and is relied upon by treating physicians in order to determine treatment options for their patient.

Women's Pathology Services: Pap Test and HPV Test

In the United States, 13,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year. In some cases, with early detection, cervical cancer can be treated by containing the abnormal cell changes in the cervix before the cancerous cells developed. Cervical cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus or HPV.

The Pap test is the tool for early detection of cervical cancer. The test is done by taking cell samples from the cervix during a pelvic exam. The cell samples are sent to a laboratory for examination of abnormal cell changes and growth.