Fellowship in Oncopathology

1. To train students in the approach to onco / tumour pathology, emphasizing the multidisciplinary team approach in the treatment of cancer, with the oncopathologist playing a vital role in the team, providing accurate diagnoses and critical prognostic & predictive information.

2. Emphasise the need to gross big surgical specimens according to guidelines (like CAP) to permit accurate pathological staging (pTN) and provide adequate prognostic information.  

3. Improve diagnostic skills, emphasizing descriptive report writing. The  need to keep a differential diagnosis list based on morphology.

4. Immunohistochemistry-based panels to be used to refine diagnoses. The value of appropriate panels, additional markers, use of positive and negative controls, quality control measures will be emphasized. Prognostic & predictive IHC markers will be highlighted- e.g. breast biomarkers, in addition to PD-L1 and MMR.

5. Exposure to biomarker reporting in breast, thyroid, colorectum, GIST, gynaecological cancers, Head and Neck cancers, melanoma, lung, HER2 in gastric carcinoma,

6. Exposure to In-situ Hybridisation tests such as FISH for HER2-neu gene amplification, EWSR1 gene translocation, EBER-ISH, RNA-ISH for kappa and lambda light chains etc.

7. Training in frozen section reporting for primary diagnosis, margins etc. and other aspects of intraoperative consultation such as squash preparations, scrape smears and intraoperative FNAs.

8. Familiarity with Molecular tests in the diagnosis of specific malignancies

9. Fine needle aspiration cytology: routine and ultrasound/ CT-guided- practice and interpretation. The use of cell blocks for IHC /FISH will be highlighted as well as the guidelines for reporting indifferent sites.

10. Fluid & gynaec cytology reporting

11. Digital Pathology and its use in routine reporting, teaching, MTB meetings, second opinions and research.

12. Exposure to newer techniques such as FISH,NGS, RT-PCR, clonality assays that are very useful in the diagnosis and prediction of various tumours.

13. Foster interest in research, write-up of small projects, publish interesting case reports.

Administrative Guidelines:

• Punctuality: 9 AM to 5 PM on all working days. Fellows will need to come earlier/stay behind to screen slides, complete assigned tasks, prepare PPTs for MDTs the following day and at the request of the consultants.
• Dress code: White long-sleeved apron to be worn at all times.
• Code of conduct to be as expected of post-MD doctors.
• Log book to be maintained and signed once a week by the Head of Unit and once a month by the Dean (Academics).
• Research topic for publication to be discussed by the Fellow with mentor/s.
• Thesis: Not Applicable.