Milestones in diagnostic pathology
Cervical cancer: the Pap smear & HPV
How cytology screening and the HPV discovery made cervical cancer largely preventable, the story behind our Pap and HPV tests.
Hepatitis B & C and liver cancer
How identifying two viruses linked chronic infection to liver cancer, and why testing for HBV and HCV matters.
HIV: from discovery to molecular testing
How isolating a virus and building tests to detect it turned a once-fatal infection into a manageable, monitored condition.
Tuberculosis: Koch’s bacillus to molecular
How identifying the TB bacterium, and later detecting its DNA, sped up diagnosis of one of the world’s oldest diseases.
HLA-B27 & ankylosing spondylitis
How one genetic marker, read alongside the clinical picture, helps make sense of long-standing inflammatory back pain.
The granuloma under the microscope
How a distinctive cluster of immune cells on a biopsy points the pathologist toward TB and other diagnoses.
Diagnosing carcinoma: the biopsy
Why examining the tissue itself remains the definitive way to diagnose cancer, the foundation of modern pathology.
The Philadelphia chromosome
How one abnormal chromosome in leukaemia launched targeted therapy and shaped modern molecular diagnostics. Educational milestone.