Gross Examination, Dissection, Evaluation, Reporting and Staging of Head and Neck Specimens

This chapter provides guidance to the pathologist on the information required in histopathology reports to guide patient management. Accurate morphological diagnosis and classification are essential, but other pathological and molecular data have prognostic and potential therapeutic value when used in conjunction with clinical evaluation and imaging studies. National and international programmes have defined sets of core or essential pathological data for most of the common and uncommon cancers based on detailed reviews of the literature, and there is also less robust evidence to support good practice for non-malignant lesions. It is important that data are recorded consistently to ensure effective communication between pathologists and clinicians for patient management but also to ensure consistent recording of data to facilitate research and national and international comparisons of cancer outcomes.