Advances in the pathology of gynecologic cancer

Pathology is often seen as a relatively static branch of medicine, with pathologists relying on the classical techniques of diagnostic light microscopy working in the sheltered environment of a laboratory that is far removed from clinical decision making. The real image of the contempory pathologist differs markedly, however, from this conventional, and outdated, view of a ‘backroom worker’ rooted in a scientific time warp. It is true that straightforward light microscopic diagnosis remains as the bedrock of gynecological pathology, but pathologists are now concerned as much with defining tumor-associated prognostic factors as they are with specific diagnosis and are, or should be, members of the oncological team that determines the management of patients with malignant disease of the female genital tract.