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Thoracic Pathology
Thoracic pathology is a sub-specialty discipline of surgical pathology that deals with histopathologic evaluation of biopsies and resections from the chest cavity, including the heart, lungs and mediastinum. Loyola University Medical Center has an active lung cancer screening program, a state of the art minimally invasive and video-assisted robotic surgery programs, a strong interventional pulmonology service combined with a strong thoracic oncology program . All of these translate into a busy but extremely enriching thoracic pathology subspecialty service program for the trainees.
Trainees have a unique opportunity to learn the nuances of handling of complex thoracic specimens. During their rotations through the thoracic pathology service, they get a chance to evaluate and interpret endobronchial and transbronchial biopsies. Because of the integrated nature of the program, the residents have the opportunity to evaluate concurrent cytology specimens thereby, facilitating histo-cyto correlation and interprofessional development. Residents also encounter a wide variety of lung cancer resections including wedge resections, segmental resections, lobectomy and pneumonectomy specimens and they get acquainted not only with the grossing of the specimens, but also become competent in evaluating the myriad of histopathologies associated with these specimens. They also routinely encounter mesotheliomas as well mediastinal pathology during this rotation which enables them to get comfortable with these unusual and rare pathologic entities. As part of thoracic oncology program, trainees routinely participate in the multidisciplinary thoracic oncology and mesothelioma tumor boards which facilitates better interaction with clinical colleagues and a better understanding of the current therapeutic and oncologic management of these tumors.
In addition to the thoracic oncology program, Loyola university medical center has an internationally renowned heart and lung transplant program. This translates into an increased exposure of our trainees to understanding medical diseases of the heart and lung including interstitial lung diseases, cardiomyopathies, valvular disease, vascular diseases and rare entities such as amyloidosis, CVID, lymphangioleiomyomatosis and cystic fibrosis. Because of the rich transplantation program, trainees routinely evaluate surveillance heart and lung biopsies for evaluation of rejection, they understand the pitfalls and complexities of transplantation pathology and also get a chance to study infectious pathologies as well as post-transplantation malignancies that are commonly encountered in this setting. This diverse set of thoracic specimens - from biopsies to resections, -from medical pathologies to neoplastic pathologies, combined with learning under subspecialized thoracic pathologists, provide a distinct opportunity for trainees to become wholesome, competent pathologists. In addition, residents have many opportunities to work on translational research activities as well as participate in QA/QI projects related to this subspecialty service.
Vijayalakshmi (Viju) Ananthanarayanan, MD
Director of Thoracic Pathology Service