Impact of pathology slide review on clinical practice in an oncology center

Our aim was to evaluate the clinical impact of pathology review in an oncol ogy center, in which review is not performed for every patient. This retros pective study involved 100 consecutive patients, whose slides were reviewed in our center. A standardized data sheet was filled out by oncologists for each patient. Pathology review was considered as responsible for a major ( 35 %), moderate (40 %), or mild or no (25 %) modification of clinical pract ice. Modification concerned either initial investigations, treatment or med ical follow up, and was independent of the reason for which review was perf ormed Eleven patients underwent a second biopsy. Whatever the possible disc repancies between initial and review diagnosis, our results show that patho logical review has a major influence on clinical practice in patients with cancer.