• Specimen Collection Guide

• Surgical Pathology Staff

• Submitted cases for second opinion
  Occasionally, biopsy slides will be accepted by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH), Laboratory of Pathology (LP), Surgical Pathology Section for second opinion review. The LP is not a reference laboratory for routine case reviews, and all requests are considered on a case by case basis due to limited resources. There is no charge to the patient and LP does not request reimbursement from insurance companies, so these cases as accepted only if the department’s own patient workload permits. Patients may also consider contacting their nearest NCI Designated Cancer Center or academic cancer center as other institutions may consider accepting second opinion cases. There are also several publicly available commercial pathology laboratories that referring physicians may submit cases for second opinion review, but the patient should discuss this option with his or her insurance provider. For consideration to have a case reviewed by the Laboratory of Pathology, please contact the branch for approval and additional instructions prior to sending specimens.
  
  Contact for request approval:
  
  Joseph W. Chinquee, MBA, MT(ASCP)DLM
  Clinical Manager, Laboratory of Pathology, NCI, CCR
  Email preferred: chinquej@mail.nih.gov
  Phone: (301) 594-9532
  
  If accepted, each submitted case must include:

1. A cover letter from the patient’s referring physician with relative medical history;
2. Original pathology report; and
3. All slides (stained and unstained), and tissue blocks (if available) as we consider additional testing that might not have been previously completed by the original laboratory.

All material will be mailed to:

Laboratory of Pathology, Surgical Pathology Section
Attn: Dr. ______ (patient will be instructed)
10 Center Drive, Room 2B50
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1500