Happy New Year everyone!

We're back after a break for the holidays, and ready to talk pathology again. How about we start with a few introductory statements about pathology? Seems a good way to get back into the swing of things. As Robbins says on page 1, Pathology is the study (logos) of disease (pathos). As you're studying diseases, a good way to organize the information is by breaking it down into four parts: etiology, pathogenesis, morphology, and clinical manifestations. Etiology is the cause of a particular disease. For example, the etiology of most cases of lung cancer involves cigarette smoking. Most diseases have a bunch of different contributing factors (including genetic and environmental factors). Pathogenesis is the actual mechanism of the disease - the way it develops in the body. Squamous cell carcinoma of the lung often progresses through stages of dysplasia before evolving into invasive carcinoma, each stage characterized by different and new genetic abnormalities within the cancer cells. Morphology is the way a disease looks under the microscope. Squamous cell carcinoma cells are usually large, with abundant cytoplasm and intercellular bridges. Clinical manifestations refers to the way the disease presents in the patient. Lung cancer often presents with a cough and weight loss. There you go! I like this way of organizing information - it can be used for pretty much any disease you talk about in pathology.