advancing-surgical-pathology-reporting-head-neck-cancer-through-3d

Advancing Surgical Pathology Reporting in Head and Neck Cancer through 3D Visualization, Dynamic Documentation, and Optimized Communication

The successful surgical management of head and neck cancer relies on intraoperative communication between surgical and pathological teams to achieve ...

THANC (Thyroid, Head and Neck Cancer) Foundation

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

The final surgical pathology report follows the patient throughout their cancer journey. For locoregionally advanced cancers, lack of surgeon-pathologist communication can lead to understaging, adversely impacting management. Our study aims to improve the accuracy of staging grossly invasive thyroid cancer by introducing an anatomic checklist, enhancing surgeon-pathologist communication.

An anatomic checklist for accurate staging of grossly invasive thyroid cancer.

Contemporary cancer management relies on the precise transfer of information regarding disease and treatment details between a range of providers and facilities. The time of surgery is uniquely responsible for many ambiguities in this oncological information flow, as intraoperative communication and documentation are often unregimented and imprecise. Downstream providers such as radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, and radiologists rely on surgical pathology reports for planning postoperative treatment and surveillance. However, traditional pathology reports lack critical details about the actions taken during surgery and do not make the oncologic clearance status explicit. We identified agents of change to improve information transfer and designed an improved surgical workflow and pathology report that make use of a novel pathologic reporting software to address gaps in the oncologic care timeline. Our updated workflow results in a dynamic final pathology report that integrates annotated 3D scans of the surgical specimen and extirpative defect, unequivocal reconciliation of at-risk and supplemental margins, highlighted preoperative radiographs, and brief narrative summaries by the surgeon and pathologist. These tangible changes aim to improve clarity and continuity in oncologic care.

Identifying and closing information gaps in head and neck cancer surgery.

Surgical pathology reports are crucial to the delivery of personalized and coordinated cancer management. However, traditional reports often lack clarity and comprehensiveness, which can lead to misinterpretation or suboptimal therapeutic planning. To address these issues, we developed MarginView3D (MV3D), a novel surgical pathology reporting software. This software integrates real-time three-dimensional (3D) visualizations of surgical specimens, surgical defects, anatomic models, annotated radiographs, and audiovisual narrative summaries from surgeons and pathologists to enhance the care of patients with head and neck cancer.

MarginView3D: A Novel Software Enabling Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Surgical Pathology Documentation for Improved Intra- and Postoperative Cancer Care.

Article	Year
An anatomic checklist for accurate staging of grossly invasive thyroid cancer. European thyroid journal\| PubMed ID: 39946546	2025
Identifying and closing information gaps in head and neck cancer surgery. Seminars in oncology\| PubMed ID: 40505388	2025
MarginView3D: A Novel Software Enabling Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Surgical Pathology Documentation for Improved Intra- and Postoperative Cancer Care. Annals of surgical oncology\| PubMed ID: 40616761	2025

Justin K. Joseph

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