Pathology - Hematology Report
Since 1998 I have been helping rare cancer patients find information for their cancers. It has always astounded me that the larger percentage of these people do not have a copy of their original pathology, hematology, or surgical report.
This report is invaluable when it comes to doing research for rare tumors or cancers. It gives you the specific diagnosis, size of the original tumor, whether it was completely excised with clean margins, cell type, and any important characteristics (sometimes called ‘markers’).
Doing research without this information is like driving with a blindfold on. You may be lucky and find things, but you may just crash and burn from spending hours doing research that does not apply to your cancer. So, my best advice for any person who is newly diagnosed is - Get a copy of this report.
Keep it in that notebook that I discussed earlier. And, if you have multiple surgeries to remove your tumor(s), get all subsequent reports. I have a close friend whose cancer migrated in cell structure three times. Changes can occur. They are rare, but isn’t that what brought us all here?