Evidence-based cancer diagnostics — classification, biomarkers, and molecular testing.
A patient with newly diagnosed triple-negative breast cancer, aged forty-two, asks whether her diagnosis was inherited, and whether it changes her treatment. That single question now sits at the intersection of oncology, surgery, genetic counseling, and pathology, and the germline BRCA1/BRCA2 test is what begins to answer it. What was once framed almost entirely as a question of familial cancer risk has, over the past several years, become a predictive biomarker: a result that helps determine which classes of drug a patient may be eligible for. That dual role, hereditary…
More in Breast →HER2, encoded by the ERBB2 gene, is a receptor tyrosine kinase in the epidermal growth factor…
More in Colon →This month's signal is consolidation: foundation models are moving from novelty to benchmarked infrastructure, regulators keep…
More in Digital Pulse →The theme this October is consolidation: liquid biopsy moved from a collection of promising single-trial signals toward codified practice. ASCO issued its first formal ctDNA guideline, a new FDA companion-diagnostic approval widened the clinical reach of plasma genotyping, and multiple syntheses sharpened the evidence for minimal residual disease (MRD) testing in solid tumors. ASCO publishes…
More in Liquid Pulse →MET is a receptor tyrosine kinase encoded by the MET gene, and its ligand, hepatocyte growth factor, drives signaling that governs cell proliferation, survival, and motility. In a subset of non, small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), that pathway becomes a dependency . But there are several biologically distinct ways this happens, and pathologists need to…
More in Lung →Few molecules in diagnostic hematopathology have shaped clinical practice as much as CD20. It serves a dual role: it is a lineage marker that helps identify B-cell lymphomas, and it is a predictive biomarker that informs eligibility for anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody therapy. This article explains what CD20 testing measures, how it is performed, how results are interpreted, and what those results mean for treatment eligibility, framed educationally for pathologists, oncologists, trainees, and informed patients. CD20 is a cell-surface protein expressed by B lymphocytes across most of their maturation. Its expression…
More in Lymphoma →A 48-year-old woman presents with a pelvic mass and ascites. The biopsy shows clear cytoplasm, tubulo-cystic…
More in Ovarian →Among the most frequently deployed tools in surgical pathology of the prostate is a compact panel…
More in Prostate →