What is a pathology report? 

A pathologist is a doctor who specializes in diagnosing diseases by examining tissue from the body. The pathologist prepares a report of their findings of the surgical specimen, which is called the pathology report. 
 
What information is available in the pathology report? 
 
The report is broken down into a few sections including:

• Basic information about the patient
• Diagnosis (if known)
• Procedure performed
• Gross description - a description of what the specimen looks like to the naked eye
• Microscopic description - a description of what was seen under the microscopic

In the case of a colorectal cancer, the pathologist will describe:

• The type of cell the cancer arose from
• The depth of tumour penetration through the bowel wall
• Number of lymph nodes removed together with the bowel and number of lymph nodes involved by tumour.
• Tumour invasion into the blood vessel
• Whether the surgical margin is involved by tumour

Updated:: 13/03/2019 []