Pathology

The Pathology Department of Peking University Cancer Hospital Inner Mongolia Hospital has been officially established as the Pathology Department of Hohhot Railway Central Hospital in March 1981. It has gone through more than 40 years of ups and downs. Under the care and support of successive hospital leaders and the unremitting efforts of generations of pathology staff, it has developed into its current scale. It integrates clinical practice, teaching, and scientific research. It is a key discipline of our hospital and has long enjoyed a high reputation within the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The Pathology Department is located on the 4th floor of Peking University Cancer Hospital Inner Mongolia Hospital Outpatient Clinic, covering an area of ​​1,360 square meters. It has functional areas such as specimen examination and sampling room, tissue dehydration processing room, slide production room, immunohistochemistry room, cytology production room, specimen storage room, frozen section room, histochemistry staining room, pathological diagnosis room, pathology consultation room, demonstration classroom, academic discussion room, etc. It also has a well-defined and functional molecular laboratory including second-generation sequencing, which can carry out various diagnostic work to meet clinical needs.

The molecular laboratory covers an area of ​​220 square meters and is divided into 7 partitions to meet the basic needs of clinical diagnosis and treatment for molecular diagnosis.

At the same time, it has personalized classrooms for different levels of teaching for residential students, graduate students, and visiting students.

【Instruments, equipment】

The Pathology Department currently has three German Leica frozen sections, three dehydrators, five paraffin microtome machines, one integrated staining and sealing machine, four fully automatic immunohistochemical staining machines, two in situ hybridization machines, one ten-person viewing microscope, one Swiss Roche fully automatic immunohistochemical staining machine, eleven Japanese Olympus diagnostic single-person microscopes, one fluorescence microscope, one three-person viewing microscope, and the American ThermoNanoDrop micro-volume spectrophotometer Includes one domestic psychic immunohistochemistry machine, two Haier Biomedical -86°C ultra-low temperature storage boxes, one -40°C medical refrigerator, three 2-8°C medical storage boxes, one biosafety cabinet, one ultra-clean workbench, and Hongshi PCR There are two instruments, a Langjia graphic pathology report system, a ME20 specimen camera, two Huayifei sampling stations, three detoxification cabinets, a fresh air system, a complex safety automatic sedimentation cell machine, Bohui HPV detector and a series of advanced equipment.

【Discipline Construction and Development】

The department currently has 20 staff members, including 12 physicians, 7 with senior professional titles (4 senior and 3 deputy senior), 3 with intermediate professional titles, and 2 residents;

2 have doctoral degrees and 10 have master’s degrees;

There are 7 technical staff, 2 with master's degree, 4 with bachelor's degree, and 1 with associate degree;

1 medical assistant.

In February 2023, Peking University Cancer Hospital of the General Hospital dispatched resident pathology expert Li Zhongwu (then vice president and academic director of the Department of Pathology) to help further improve the department's diagnostic level and scientific research capabilities.

The department focuses on talent training and echelon building. Professionals in the department have studied in the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking University People's Hospital, Peking University Cancer Hospital, and Xijing Hospital Affiliated to the Fourth Military Medical University.

Two doctors visited Harvard University-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco respectively.

The Pathology Department is responsible for pathological diagnosis of the whole hospital, consultation of difficult cases outside the hospital, and multidisciplinary consultation. It also receives pathological specimen diagnosis from many private hospitals in Hohhot and nearby areas.

It can provide clinical departments with accurate, fast, full-process and one-stop diagnostic results.

Advanced instruments and equipment provide safe, fast, high-quality and efficient work guarantee for the development of pathological work, and lay a solid foundation for accurate and reliable pathological diagnosis for patients.

The discipline construction is gradually improved and the staffing is reasonable.

Based on the needs of pathological diagnosis of tumors, the Department of Pathology has currently formed pathological subspecialties such as urology and male reproductive system, breast disease, digestive system, respiratory system, female reproductive system, lymphatic hematopoietic system, head and neck, and skin and soft tissue.

The existing pathological technicians have undergone standardized training and are skilled in operation and technology.

With the advancement of the construction of the regional medical center, the Pathology Department cooperates with gastrointestinal tumors, lymphohematological tumors, gynecological tumors, breast surgery, thoracic surgery, orthopedics, medical oncology, urology, radiotherapy, imaging and other departments to form a multidisciplinary consultation (MDT) system to provide comprehensive, holistic and seamless diagnosis and treatment for tumor patients.

At the same time, professional development is carried out through online platform learning, training of advanced talents, cooperation with key domestic cancer hospitals, etc., and efforts are made to develop into an advanced tumor pathology diagnosis center in the region and the country as soon as possible.

With the rapid development of standardization and precision in the diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors, clinical diagnosis and treatment work continues to put forward new requirements for pathological diagnosis. The Department of Pathology has the courage to innovate while maintaining the advantages of traditional diagnosis, constantly improves the quality of diagnosis, actively participates in various quality control tasks, and promotes the high-quality development of the department. At the same time, it continues to add new technologies and new projects, build a discipline brand, and keep up with our hospital's development plan of "major tumors, precision specialties";

Under the guidance of the school's motto of "Advocating honesty, advocating kindness, following the roots and seeking innovation", the Department of Pathology takes "being realistic, enterprising, pioneering and innovative" as its scientific motto;

Adhering to the belief of "serving the people wholeheartedly", we provide patients with accurate, timely and efficient pathological diagnosis and contribute to the continuous development and construction of the hospital.

【Medical work】

The main diagnostic and treatment services provided by the Pathology Department include:

Routine pathological examination involves making pathological slices from tissues obtained from the human body through surgical resection, gastrointestinal endoscopy, bronchoscopy biopsy, and puncture biopsy guided by B-ultrasound or CT through a series of steps such as sampling, dehydration, fixation, and slicing. The pathological slices are then observed under a microscope to give a pathological diagnosis and determine the nature of the lesion. This is routine pathological examination.

This examination is the basic work of the pathology department, and subsequent immunohistochemistry, special staining, and genetic testing are all carried out on this basis.

Intraoperative rapid freezing pathological examination, referred to as intraoperative freezing.

The pathological tissue removed during surgery is quickly frozen in a freezing microtome and then sliced ​​into sections for pathological diagnosis. A diagnostic opinion can usually be obtained within 30 minutes to provide reference for clinical operations.

Intraoperative frozen sections are taken from fresh tissue. Due to problems such as ice crystals and short time, the quality of frozen sections cannot reach the accuracy of conventional paraffin sections, and the accuracy of diagnosis will also be affected.

The scope of application of intraoperative frozen pathology diagnosis is to determine the nature of the lesion in the specimen, such as inflammation or tumor, benign tumor or malignant tumor, so as to determine the subsequent surgical plan;

It is necessary to understand the spread of malignant tumors, including whether the tumor has infiltrated adjacent tissues, whether there is metastasis to regional lymph nodes, etc.;

It is necessary to determine whether there is residual tumor tissue at the surgical margin;

It is necessary to confirm the tissue sites to be removed, such as parathyroid glands, fallopian tubes, lymph nodes, and ectopic tissues.

Cytological examination is an examination method that collects cells shed from lesions through different means, such as cervix, nipple discharge, pleural and peritoneal effusion, pericardial effusion, sputum and urine, etc., and makes them into smears or thin-layer liquid-based cytology (TCT) smears, and then stains them for diagnosis.

At present, it is mainly used for the diagnosis of tumors, and can also be used for the examination and diagnosis of certain diseases. It has the advantages of wide range of materials, little or no damage, economy, speed and safety.

It is especially suitable for large-scale tumor screening and can play a preliminary screening role in various malignant tumors of the human body (especially cancers of various organs).

For tumor patients with pleural or peritoneal effusion, when surgery or other examinations are not possible to clarify the nature and type of the lesions, the pathology department can enrich the tumor cells in the body fluids by making cell wax blocks, and continue to perform immunocytochemistry and other work to clarify the nature. Gene testing can also be performed to determine whether there are mutated genes to guide whether clinical targeted therapy can be carried out.

Special staining examination, in order to display and determine the normal structure in tissues or cells or the abnormal substances, lesions and pathogens that appear in pathological processes, it is necessary to use corresponding staining methods that display these components, such as reticular fiber staining, acid-fast staining, etc.

It is very helpful in diagnosing diseases.

Immunohistochemical examination, immunohistochemical technology is a routine project carried out in the pathology department. It is a histochemical technology that uses known specific antibodies to bind to antigens and observes color changes under the microscope through chemical reactions to identify the antigens.

Mainly used in: 1. Diagnosis and differential diagnosis of tumors.

The use of immunohistochemical markers using specific antibodies of each tissue can clarify the components of tumor tissue, thereby enabling diagnosis and differential diagnosis of tumors;

2. Detection of pathogenic infectious diseases, such as Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection and cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection;

3. Identify invasion and metastasis.

Carcinoma in situ and invasive cancer have different malignant degrees and different clinical treatment options. Immunohistochemical examination performed by pathologists based on morphology can help distinguish such changes.

For metastatic tumors, specific antigen markers can be used to help diagnose and determine the source of the tumor.

There are also some immunohistochemistry projects that can be used as screening projects before genetic testing.

Immunohistochemistry also plays an indispensable role in targeted tumor therapy and immunotherapy.

The Department of Pathology keeps pace with the development of clinical disease diagnosis and treatment. Sub-professional diagnosticians continue to learn the latest diagnosis and treatment knowledge in their profession, and promptly launch immunotherapy-related projects such as PD-L1, Claudin18.2, FGFR2b, etc. to provide strong support for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization detection (FISH), FISH is widely used in the auxiliary diagnosis of solid tumors such as breast cancer, gastric cancer, bladder cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, and lymphoma.

The application of Her-2/neu gene DNA probe to detect the amplified expression level of Her-2/neu gene is beneficial to the clinical diagnosis and efficacy monitoring of breast cancer and gastric cancer.

At present, FISH is mainly used for early diagnosis of tumors, efficacy detection, personalized treatment and prognosis judgment.

Since the launch of FISH testing in 2018, accurate Her2 gene testing reports have been provided to many breast cancer and gastric cancer patients.

In 2021, the Pathology Department has successively carried out Epstein-Barr virus in situ hybridization (EBER) and urine FISH testing.

Circulating tumor cell detection (CTC) is a detection method that analyzes circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of tumor patients. It is helpful for the diagnosis of tumors, the detection of postoperative recurrence and metastasis of tumor patients, the sensitivity assessment of anti-tumor drugs, and the selection of patient prognosis and individualized treatment plans.

The Pathology Department is currently the only department in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region that carries out circulating tumor cell detection (CTC) work, filling a gap in the autonomous region.

PCR molecular testing: lung cancer PCR-11 gene testing, colorectal cancer KRAS/NRAS/BRAF/PIK3CA gene joint testing, thyroid BRAF gene testing, breast cancer PIK3CA gene testing.

【Scientific research work】

Department staff have presided over 3 Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Natural Science Foundation projects (including major projects), 1 Prairie Talent Team project, 1 Inner Mongolia Medical University Innovation Team "Malignant Tumor Pathogenesis and Translation Research Team" project, Inner Mongolia Medical University Science and Technology Million Joint Project, Inner Mongolia Department of Education Higher School Scientific Research Project, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Public Hospital High-level Clinical Development Technology Project, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Cancer Hospital In-hospital Fund Project, etc. Nearly 20 projects.

Department staff participate in the National Natural Science Foundation project, the Inner Mongolia Natural Science Foundation project, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Talent Development Fund high-level talent individual project, the Inner Mongolia Medical University Science and Technology Million Joint Project, and the Inner Mongolia Department of Education higher education scientific research projects.

Main research directions: clinical and experimental pathological research on tumor occurrence and development, pathology and treatment research on breast tumors, development mechanisms of gastrointestinal tumors, research on the development of cervical lesions, pathogenesis of prostate cancer, molecular detection and tumor targeted therapy, pathogenesis of respiratory system tumors and exploration of potential clinical treatment targets, etc.

He has obtained 5 utility model patents, published nearly 60 articles such as SCI, Chinese core and scientific and technological core papers as the first author or corresponding author, and participated in the preparation of 15 clinical application monographs on pathology.

【Teaching work】

Postgraduate teaching: The department currently has 6 master's tutors, recruited and trained more than 20 pathology master's students, and graduated 12, of whom 2 were admitted to doctoral students, the remaining 10 are all employed in tertiary hospitals, and 1 won the 2022 Outstanding Master's Thesis in Pathology and Pathophysiology of Inner Mongolia Medical University.

10 people are studying.

Participated in the theoretical teaching of "Oncology", a postgraduate course in our college.

Undergraduate teaching: The department offers public elective courses for medical university undergraduates: "Clinical Pathology", "Practical Pathology Technology", "Pathology and Health", and is responsible for theoretical teaching and teaching assistance.

Continuing medical education: Successfully applied and held 1 national-level continuing education project and 20 continuing education projects in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

He has taught 7 Mongolian pathological diagnosis doctors and technicians, and taught and trained more than 10 pathological diagnosis and technical training doctors and technicians in the region.

【Award-winning status】

The department won the title of Advanced Group of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Cancer Hospitals in 2017 and 2018.

In 2018, the "Malignant Tumor Pathogenesis and Translation Research Team" won an award from the Inner Mongolia Medical University's Innovation Team Development Plan.

2019 Professional Committee of the Breast Pathology Group of Inner Mongolia Society for the Prevention and Treatment of Glandular Diseases.

In 2020, he was selected into the eleventh batch of "Prairie Talents" industrial innovation/entrepreneurship talent team of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Party Committee.

2021 "Prairie Talents" Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Industrial Innovation Talent Team.

In December 2023, the Pathology Department of Peking University Cancer Hospital Inner Mongolia Hospital was selected by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Health Commission as the construction unit of the medical technology autonomous region-level medical quality control center.

In 2024, our department was approved as the second batch of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region-level pathology medical quality control centers. The person in charge: Li Zhongwu, and the secretary of the quality control center: Guo Zhijuan.

It will be approved as a key discipline of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 2025.

It will be approved as a national key clinical specialty in 2025.

【Department Core Group】

Director: Guo Zhijuan;

Deputy Director: Kong Linghui;

Core group members: Li Zhongwu, Liu Hui, Hu Sileng.

【Department Expert】

Li Zhongwu, Shi Yunfei, Wang Jinhua

【Department Culture】

Patient-centered and quality-focused.

The doctors are sincere, united, fearless in challenges, and brave enough to work hard to promote the high-quality development of the Department of Pathology.