Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

The Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is the integral bridge between clinical care and basic science at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. It plays an essential role in the institution's mission to improve patient care and eliminate cancer and allied diseases as a significant problem in Texas, the United States and the world.

The division comprises three clinical departments and one research department.

The division and the departments serve M. D. Anderson patients, Outreach and Physician Network patients and clinical staff. The faculty engages in programmatic and interdisciplinary basic, clinical and translational research.

Facilities and Faculty

The division occupies more than 120,000 square feet in six adjoining buildings within the M. D. Anderson complex in the Texas Medical Center. It employs 75 clinical and research doctoral faculty and 25 clinical fellows. In the division, the supporting technical and clerical staff numbers 500. The clinical laboratory processes over four million tests per year.

The faculty includes expertise across the entire spectrum of oncologic pathology, hematopathology and laboratory medicine. Surgical Pathology is now divided into nine subspecialty groups: breast, dermatopathology, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, head and neck, neuropathology, sarcoma/unknown primary tumor, thoracic/mediastinal and hematopathology.

Specimen Handling and Diagnosis

In anatomic pathology, 40,000 tumors or tumor-related specimens are handled and approximately 130 autopsies are performed annually.

Approximately 19,000 cytology cases are processed annually, of which almost 60% represent non-gynecologic specimens - including about 4,500 needle aspirations, of which about 40% are superficial aspirations procured by the cytopathology staff. Close to 1,000 cytology specimens are evaluated for DNA content in the image analysis laboratory.

Hematopathology evaluates approximately 11,000 bone marrow specimens and 2,100 lymph node specimens per year. The molecular laboratory performs more than 14,000 tests/year and flow cytometry tests approximately 23,000 specimens per year. The Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine performs close to 4,000,000 clinical laboratory tests and procedures including approximately 550,000 hematology and coagulation tests. These examinations include aspirate smears, clot sections, biopsies and special stains. There are approximately 400-500 new acute and chronic leukemia per year. Most of the cases represent in-house patients include Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Approximately 400 new lymphomas are available for review annually.

Consultation and Diagnostic Services

Consultation on specimens from patients sent to M. D. Anderson, or second opinion cases, represent about 60% of our caseload. The review of diagnostic material obtained and evaluated elsewhere has been shown to be of significant importance both in terms of quality of care and economic benefit.

Complete information and request forms are available at Pathology Second Opinion and Consultation Services in Core Facilities and Services.