Clinical Pathology - A Diagnostic Aid?

Clinical pathology is now an essential component of high quality clinical care. Pathology tests are important to reaching a diagnosis in 85% of hospital patients. Indeed in some areas including oncology, infection and transplantation medicine diagnosis and optimum treatment cannot be delivered without histopathological investigation. Pathology testing is a core component of early cancer detection through screening for breast, bowel, cervix and prostate cancers. In the last twenty years pathology has moved from a useful diagnostic aid to a clinical essential.