Clinical and surgical pathology

The course provides students with the tools to learn the pathological basis of organ and apparatus diseases and to be able to integrate macroscopic changes, histological and cytological modifications and molecular alterations into the clinical picture. The course introduces the main diagnostic procedures in surgical pathology, the professional tasks, responsibilities and fields of activity of the pathologist. Teaching approach is strictly integrated with that applied in the pathology modules of the System Disease courses.

At the end of the course, the student is expected to: -be acquainted with the most important diagnostic tools (exfoliative and aspirative cytology, histology, cytology, frozen section) and techniques (immunohistochemistry and molecular pathology) of the surgical pathology; -be aware of the possible applications of such tools in preventive medicine (cytological and molecular screening), in clinical diagnostics and in the evaluation of prognostic and predictive parameters; -be able to properly interpret and integrate in the clinic the information provided by the pathology report for an appropriate therapeutic decision-making process.