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Pathology
About us
The pathology department forms the bedrock on which initial clinical treatment decisions are taken in Oncology. It is housed in the Upper Basement of the main block and comprises of Histopathology, Cytopathology, Haematopathology and Clinical Pathology services. Fluorescent in situ hybridization and Flow Cytometry are housed in the adjacent Sharada Kripa building.
We are a referral centre for other hospitals for complex oncopathology cases for expert opinion; ancillary tests like IHC and molecular tests; and intraoperative consultation.
Our strengths are:
-Excellent quality of tissue processing and sections for accurate diagnosis
-Excellent infrastructure with every instrument having a back- up machine to avoid equipment down- time and delay in reports
-Wide array of IHC markers available in house to deal with complicated cases
-Regular communication with clinicians and access to EMR for better,timely reports
-Regular participation in multidisciplinary tumor boards for active involvement in patient management
All the laboratories have been accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL).
Departmental activities
i. Histopathology
Accurate and timely diagnosis is key in oncology practice and every effort is made to uphold this. The Department of Histopathology is well equipped with instruments to ensure smooth workflow and provide quality reports on small biopsies, medium,large and extra-large resection specimens of both in-house patients and referrals/second opinions.
Frozen Section: Intraoperative frozen section diagnosis during working hours is offered both during in-house surgical procedures as well as those done elsewhere (latter only for elective surgeries after prior appointment by surgeon).
Grossing and Tissue Processing: Approximately 300 paraffin blocks are prepared every day. Cell block preparation of fluids/aspirates is also routinely performed.
Immunohistochemistry: Immunohistochemistry is an essential adjunct in the accurate diagnosis and subtyping of neoplasms in oncology practice, apart from providing predictive information for hormone therapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy. A wide array of more than 110 diagnostic and predictive IHC markers is available on a fully automated platform.
Fluorescent in situ hybridization was started in-house in 2022 with HER2neu for IHC equivocal cases and more diagnostic/theranostic probes are in the pipeline.
Synoptic reporting of resection specimens is done. Reports of small biopsies, review slides/blocks and IHC are available in the hospital’s EMR.
The quality of all elements in Histopathology is monitored by regular participation in External Quality Assurance programmes and/or inter-laboratory comparison.
ii. Cytopathology
The diagnostic services in the field of cytopathology include Exfoliative Cytology (Gynaecological & Non-gynaecological) and Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC).
Gynaecological Pap smears from sceening camps are evaluated in addition to hospital –collected specimens.
Special services such as EBUS-FNA and Rapid on-site sample evaluation (ROSE) of FNAC samples to improve sample adequacy are also offered. Liquid Based Cytology (LBC)service will be launched shortly as an additional modality to conventional cytology to improve diagnostic yield.
Regular participation in External Quality Assurance programme ensures quality of reports.
iii. Haematopathology
Hematological malignancies form a large part of medical oncology practice. They assume great importance as they include many treatable and curable cancers. The Hematopathology Laboratory offers a wide variety of testing to aid in the diagnosis of leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other hematopoietic disorders in addition to non-malignant diseases. State-of-art equipment (cell counter, coagulation analyzer and 10 colour flow cytometry) help offer referring physicians the speed and accuracy of results required to meet the needs of their patients. Physicians receive comprehensive and integrated hematopathology reports containing diagnostic and prognostic information. In addition, many cases undergo complicated diagnostic algorithms with concurrent molecular and cytogenetic evaluation necessary to apply the current World Health Organization classification.
Quality assurance in hematology involves trained and competent staff, calibrated and well maintained equipment and validated procedures. At the analytical phase, quality check includes (a) constant checking of test reliability by internal quality control (b) external quality assessment by an independent agency to check performance at intervals. In addition, supervision of the pre-analytical and post-analytical phases from specimen collection to delivery of quality reports completes the quality circle.
Competent faculty are also committed to hematopathology education of the technical staff, Fellowship trainees in Onco-pathology, allied health sciences, as well as the DrNB course trainees of various medical and surgical oncology departments. Active participation in research projects, publications in national and internal indexed medical journals, conferences and work-shops is encouraged. Participation in intra-departmental and multi-disciplinary tumour board meetings, hemoto-oncology clinics and journal clubs help update faculty and stdents with the current developments in the field of hemato-oncology. The hematopathology team plays a major role in the active bone-marrow transplant program of the hospital.
Academics
i. Two post MD/DNB Pathology students are admitted every year following a written test and interview for an 18 month Fellowship in Tumour Pathology that is affiliated to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka. For details, please visit our website.
ii. CMEs /Conferences / Meetings
CME/Conference/Teaching programme for postgraduates are organised regularly. Participation in weekly tumour board meetings and in-house journal clubs, subject seminars and gross/slide seminars occur regularly.
The following meetings have been organised by the department :
a) CME in Haematolymphoid Disorders-September 2nd,2017
b) CME in Endometrial Pathology-September 10th, 2018
c) CME in Gynaec Oncopathology-February 8th,2020
d) Gynaec Oncopathology-Basics to Bedside(KCIAPM KAPCON Workshop)- September 29th,2021(online)
e) CME in Genitourinary Oncopathology-April 23rd,2022 (hybrid)
f) CME in Musculoskeletal Oncopathology(IAPM APCON Workshop)- November 30th,2022
iii. Training of DNB(Radiotherapy),DrNB (Medical/Surgical/Gynaec Oncology)students during their rotational postings in the department.
Projects & Research
Fellowship students and Consultants are encouraged to take up projects in areas of their
interest, in association with the Research Laboratory and/or outside agencies.
Our Experts
MD, MBA(HCS)
Dr. Jayashree Kulkarni
Director - Laboratory services and H.O.D. Hematopathology
Contact- 080-26981077
Dr. Lakshmi Devi
MD
Hematopathologist
Contact- 080-26981077
MD
Pathologist
Dr. Rekha V. Kumar
Contact- 080-26981070
Dr. Nandini N. Inamdar
DCP
Pathologist
&
Blood Bank Officer
Dr. Sulakshana M.S.
MD
Pathologist
Contact- 080-26981070
Dr. Divya V.
MD, PDF (Oncopathology)
Pathologist
Contact- 080-26981070
Contact- 080-26981075
Dr. Gayathri
MD, PDCC in Advanced Haematology
Pathologist
Contact- 080-26981077
Dr. Shanthi
MD, PDCC in Tumour Pathology
Pathologist
Contact- 080-26981070
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