A view of the future: The role of pathologists

Abstract

To ensure the correct and complete report of all histological elements and to allow more accurate comparison of different studies from different institutions, standardisation of pathology reports will become an essential step in the process of improving patient care. The identification and description of rare variant histologies as well as the substaging of T1 tumors will help to improve a better patient's risk stratification and an even more individualized therapy. Finally, the number of lymphnodes (LNs) examined after radical surgery, the number of positive LNs, the presence/absence of extracapsular invasion, the size of the largest metastases as well as the size of the positive LNs will be fundamental required information that will allow to improve the prediction of patients' prognosis after radical cystectomy.