The article “Why is it Crucial to Reintegrate Pathology into Cancer Research?” by
authors Jaime Rodriguez-Canales, Franziska C. Eberle, Elaine S. Jaffe, and Michael R. EmmertBuck evaluates the necessity of pathology’s role in cancer research. Since molecular medicine
has become such a big focus in cancer research lately, the relationship between cancer research
and pathology has become more distant. They argue that adding a pathological opinion greatly
increases the acuity of results that could be concluded from just a molecular viewpoint. The
audience intended for this piece are doctors and other people in the medicine field interested in
cancer research. This was an article published in an academic journal title BioEssays, which also
gives clues to who the intended audience is. In this piece, the authors assume that the readers are
well-informed on the subject, but they do provide some background information. The text uses
an appeal to logos, providing factual evidence and true examples. For instance, they mentioned
specific cases in which he integration of pathology has helped make discoveries, “Examples
include the (t11;22)(p13:q12) translocation resulting in a EWS/WT1 transcript present in the
desmoplastic small round cell tumor, the discovery, and characterization of TMPRSS2-ERG
gene fusions in prostate carcinoma, the molecular characterization of solid carcinomas such as
lung adenocarcinoma, and the molecular genetics and pathological characterization of the
multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome.” In the text, they also addressed some of
the difficulties involved in achieving integration, and then continued to provide ways to
overcome those barriers, such as more education. They also gave examples of what has happened
when a pathologist has not reviewed the patient samples and how it would have been helpful.
The text is organized into headings and subheadings which makes it easy to follow. The tone is
scholarly, but still argumentative as seen by diction such as “ample evidence,” “thus,” and
“ideally.”
I found this article to be effective, I was convinced that integration is a necessity due to
the complex nature of cancer. I think this is a great, credible source for my research paper. It
addresses the roles of different pathologists and also why are they are needed in cancer research.
It was a bit difficult to understand at certain points, but they provided an ample amount of
background knowledge and explanations that even a novice such as myself could absorb most of
the information.
Rodriguez-Canales, J., Eberle, F. C., Jaffe, E. S., & Emmert-Buck, M. R. (2011). Why is it
Crucial to Reintegrate Pathology into Cancer Research?. Bioessays: News and Reviews in
Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, 33(7), 490498.
doi:10.1002/bies.201100017, from
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201100017/full