Pathology Second Opinions

A patient’s diagnosis is the cornerstone of their treatment plan and as such, it is essential that this diagnosis is correct and as specific as possible. Recent studies have shown that elements of the diagnosis are incorrect in up to 20% of cases, especially for cases with rare or difficult to make diagnosis. Stanford’s team of pathologists are world-renowned and offer deep subspecialty expertise that can be leveraged to confirm a diagnosis or lend support in making a diagnosis on a difficult case.

If you are a patient who is interested in getting a second opinion on your diagnosis from an expert at Stanford, please work with your physicians to request a review of your case as we cannot accept cases directly from patients. For fastest review of the case, please ask your physician to include the following:

1. A Stanford requisition
2. All slides related to the case
3. All relevant prior pathology reports
4. A representative paraffin cell block
5. The results from any ancillary testing (molecular studies, flow cytometry, FISH, etc) and the slides/block (if applicable)

If you are a physician who would like to get a second opinion for your patient, please see our Anatomic Pathology services for info on submitting to the relevant subspecialty.