The Head & Neck Histopathology Service for GSTS is provided jointly with the Department of Oral Pathology of Kings College London and is housed on floor 28 of Tower Wing at Guy’s. This is a relatively small and specialised department. A full range of histopathology services are provided, including rapid frozen section diagnosis, immunocytochemistry, in-situ hybridisation and other molecular biological investigations, in conjunction with other GSTS laboratories as appropriate. The department has particular expertise in dealing with bone specimens and also undertakes ground sections for dental diagnosis. Protocols are integrated with other histopathology specialities with samples for suspected lymphoma or other conditions treated according to identical GSTS standardised protocols.
The department has four consultant histopathologists; Dr Bernice Almeida, Dr John Harrison, Professor Peter Morgan and Professor Edward Odell, the Head of Department. All work closely with the South East Cancer Network Head and Neck Cancer Multidisciplinary team based at Guy’s Hospital and the SE London Thyroid multidisciplinary team.
The department provides a specialist service of routine image-based ploidy analysis for pre-malignant lesions of the mouth and upper aero-digestive tract.
The department is accredited by Clinical Pathology Accreditation Ltd.
As a joint academic department, we have a strong research record. Facilities are available to support clinical research and we have successful externally funded research groups working on salivary disorders and the molecular oncology of head and neck cancer. The department receives funding from GSTT Biomedical Research Centre, Cancer Research UK, the Charitable Foundation and other major funding agencies.
