Collaboration Between Oncologists and Pathologists Benefit Patients

Andre Goy, MD, MS, physician-in-chief of the Hackensack Meridian Health Oncology Care Transformation Service; chairman and executive director of John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center; Lydia Pfund chair for Lymphoma; chief of the Division of Lymphoma; professor of medicine at Georgetown University; and professor and chair of oncology at Seton Hall–Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, discusses the benefits of working with a pathologist to develop a better understanding of molecular oncology and optimal treatment decisions for patients with lymphomas.

Goy says it is important to collaborate with a pathologist when treating patients. When physicians get a report from a pathologist, it is important ask them about testing for additional markers. In large cell lymphoma, for example, there needs to be an understanding of what markers are present to identify certain subsets of patients, but that is not routinely done.

In non–small cell lung cancer, approximately half of patients do not undergo mutational profiling, according to Goy; he says the best way to start to treat a patient is to have the best workup. To do this, it is important to connect with the local specialists that can guide treatments, as well as refer patients for clinical trials. With the options that are currently available, and with these novel combinations of targeted therapy and immunotherapy, physicians are seeing unprecedented responses.