Endocrine Pathology

Procedure Description:

Endocrine Pathology is the subspecialty of surgical pathology which deals with the diagnosis and characterization of neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases of organs of the endocrine system, including the thyroid, parathyroids, pancreas, and adrenal glands.  We practice a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the endocrine system, with routine histology, as well as the utilization of specialized immunohistochemical and molecular diagnostic testing.  Dr. Michael Jones, who trained with Dr. Juan Rosai, a nationally recognized expert in tumors of the thyroid, heads the Endocrine Pathology Division.  A particular area of expertise is in the interpretation of thyroid fine needle aspirations (FNAs).  Dr. Jones and Dr. Douglas Dressel interpret over 1,000 thyroid FNAs per year which has allowed the establishment of a multi-year cumulative database with over 6,000 surgical pathology to cytology correlations.  This allows us to give specific risk of malignancy data for each diagnostic FNA category.  Our surgeons and endocrinologists find this particularly helpful in planning follow-up.  We adhere to the National Cancer Institute recommendations for diagnostic categorization of thyroid FNAs.  Finally, we are currently bringing up BRAF molecular mutation detection to aid in the triage of our thyroid FNAs.   

In addition to our cytology expertise, Spectrum Pathologists have extensive experience in the diagnosis of tumors of endocrine organs, particularly the thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal.  We accession over 200 endocrine neoplasms per year.  As the director of the service, Dr. Jones has published widely on diseases of the thyroid and parathyroid.