Textbook Reviews

Please list below any pathology textbooks that you find useful. The wiki software does not allow for rating of individual books. However, if you would like to rate any of these books, please follow the link for that particular book to Amazon.com (we do not have any affiliation with Amazon, it is just a good site with easy to use rating/comment feature) and add your review for that book.

Anatomic Pathology

Large General Surgical Pathology Texts

• Kumar,Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 8th ed., 2009
  • Often considered a medical student text, this book is still very valuable to pathology residents!
  • Pros
    • The straight dope: Knowing Robbins backward and forward is probably a prerequisite to passing the boards--ironically, especially the earlier chapters on general pathology that most people skip.
    • Online access is useful, particularly if you plan to travel light, although it does not allow for making (and later accessing) your own additional notes.
  • Cons
    • The diagnostic tools in this book, although improved from the previous edition, are clearly not sufficient for the practical portion of the exam.
    • There is very little difference between the "Student" edition and the "Professional" edition, after some enquiry, we are at a loss for explaining the additional $30 in price.

• Rosai, Ackerman and Rosai's Surgical Pathology, 9th ed., 2004
  • Outstanding single-authored two-volume set covering all areas of surgical pathology in a conversational lecture-style format.
  • Considered a gold standard by practicing pathologists ("the book you want when you already know the diagnosis"), but may be difficult for learning material for the first time.
  • Appendix includes ADASP grossing guidelines.
  • One idea is to go throught both volumes and look at all of the pictures before attempting to read the text. You might find this an easier way to get your feet wet in Rosai than reading it straight through from page 1 (especially if you are a PGY-1)!
  • New edition coming out in late 2011.

• Mills, Sternberg's Diagnostic Surgical Pathology, 5th ed., 2009
  • Multi-authored two-volume set, often considered more learner-oriented.
  • Purchase includes full web access to text and images.
  • Typeface is very small!

• Fletcher, Diagnostic Histopathology of Tumors, 3rd Edition
  • 2 volumes of nothing but tumors.
  • Tons and tons of great pics. Comes with CD's with all images.
  • Somewhat pricey, but still worth it.
  • One downside is that although the book has extensive neoplastic info, basic non-neoplastic info is lacking (which is expected given the title of the book, but it means that this book cannot really take the place of Rosai or Sternberg.)

Smaller Surgical Pathology Manuals

• Dabbs, Diagnostic Immunohistochemistry, 3rd ed., 2010
  • A unique textbook focused on immunohistochemistry, organized by organ system.
  • Very useful for learning about the role of IHC in differential diagnosis at each site, and for learning how to interpret each stain.
  • Since this book concentrates on IHC, an adjunctive technique, it will probably not be the first book you buy. As a first-year resident, this would be overkill. Later in your training, you will appreciate it.
  • Knowledge in this area progresses rapidly, so this text may have a shorter useful half-life than other general pathology texts. I would say this text is best used in combination with Medline/Pubmed and Immunoquery.

• Gattuso, Differential Diagnosis in Surgical Pathology, 2nd ed., 2010
  • Multiauthored book covering all of surgical path in an outline format.
  • One of the most useful books I own, because it explicitly addresses differential diagnosis--which is usually one of the main questions on my mind when I am looking at slides. I refer to this all the time at the scope.
  • Complete online access.
  • Decent for board review too.

• Humphrey, The Washington Manual of Surgical Pathology, 2008
  • An "at the scope" reference covering all areas of surgical pathology, with brief notes on cytology.
  • Very useful as a summary of diagnostic criteria, grading and staging (now slightly out of date for some disease sites since the publication of AJCC 7th ed.)
  • Images are online only, accessible by password. Online images are very small.
  • Purchase includes online text and image bank access.

• Lester, Manual of Surgical Pathology, 3rd ed., 2010
  • The gold standard for specimen grossing; you will never be wrong if you follow the protocols in Lester. Every resident needs to have access to a copy, although not necessarily to own one.
  • Useful tables on special stains and, especially, on immunohistochemistry.

Histology

• Mills, Histology for Pathologists, 3rd ed., 2006
  • A one-of-a-kind text discussing fine points of histology, ultrastructure, cell biology and cytochemistry for each organ system.
  • Discusses common and uncommon normal findings in each organ system to help prevent overdiagnosis.
  • Often stated to be indispensable for pathologists, but personally, I have not found this to be especially useful on a day-to-day basis. Most points in this book are truly esoteric. Practically speaking, when I have a histology question and open this book, I usually close it fifteen minutes later having learned something interesting, but still needing to go to a histology atlas to answer my actual question.

• Kierszenbaum and Tres, Histology and Cell Biology: An Introduction to Pathology, 3rd ed., 2011
  • Pitched as a medical school text, this is actually too advanced for medical student histology. But it is almost perfect for pathology residents who need a serious histology reference. The book is equal parts histology and cellular physiology, which is helpful for understanding structure-function correlations in the tissues you are looking at.
  • Inexpensive (under $70) and has full online access.

Subspecialty Surgical Pathology

Gynecologic

• Crum and Lee, Diagnostic Gynecologic and Obstetric Pathology, 2nd ed., 2011
  • A newer multiauthored text from the Brigham and Women's group.
  • Very clear explanations and thoughtful coverage of many topics, particularly ovarian cancer.
  • Coverage of early endometrial neoplasia is entirely based on the controversial EIN concept; unless your institution endorses this, you will need to look elsewhere for guidance in this area.
  • New edition in 2011.

• Kurman, Blaustein's Pathology of the Female Genital Tract, 6th ed., 2011
  • The multiauthored volume from the Hopkins group; rather more discursive in style, and considered a gold standard by many.
  • A new edition has recently come out. The book is now all in color and less chatty, but obviously more up to date.
  • No online access.

• Clement and Young, Atlas of Gynecologic Surgical Pathology, 1st ed., 2008
  • An outline-style text with outstanding illustrations.
  • Great for rapid reference at the scope ("What do I call this lesion?")

• Nucci & Oliva, Gynecologic Pathology: a volume in foundations in diagnostic pathology series www.amazon.com
  • Pros
    • Very useful series in general, this one is among the best in the series
    • Large and well annotated images
    • Clinical and Pathological features summarized in handy text boxes
  • Cons
    • No online access in this edition, newer editions on other topics in this series do have this feature and it will probably be added in future

GI and Liver

• Fenoglio-Preiser, Gastrointestinal Pathology: An Atlas and Text, 3rd ed. (2007)
  • A standard and very reliable text.
  • Luminal GI only.
  • Pictures all in color, but images and illustrations are showing their age and are not up to modern standards of quality.
  • Full online access, but Lippincott is currently updating their online offerings so the online access is currently out of service.

• Odze and Goldblum, Surgical Pathology of the GI Tract, Liver, Biliary Tract and Pancreas, 2nd ed. (2008).
  • A newer text that covers the entire GI system plus associated organs.
  • Pleasant to read.
  • Full online access through ExpertConsult. References are not in the printed text, but are online only, an interesting idea that makes the book thinner but is ultimately a little annoying.

Pulmonary

• Anna-Luise Katzenstein, Katzenstein and Askin's Surgical Pathology of Non-Neoplastic Lung Disease, 4th edition
  • Pros:
    • Hands down the most practical non-neoplastic lung pathology textbook out there
    • The book is small in size; very easy to lug around
    • Excellent illustrations in full color; probably the best pics of any textbook out there
    • No-nonsense focus on diagnosis and main clinical implications
    • Concise tables with lists of causes that are very useful in daily practice
    • Author literally "wrote the book" on interstitial lung disease and granulomatous lung disease
    • Brief but to-the-point discussion of clinical and radiologic issues
  • Cons:
    • This is a book geared towards practical and rapid diagnosis; if you want a detailed exposition of the history of various lesions OR an encyclopedic tome that lists every rare lesion that the world has ever seen, this is not the book for you!
    • You'll need a separate book for tumor pathology, of course

• Leslie and Wick, Practical Pulmonary Pathology, 2nd ed., 2011
  • Great primer in pulmonary path, with many pictures.
  • Leslie and Wick are both masters at teaching easy-to-understand pattern recognition-based approaches to diagnosis.
  • New edition, new higher price.
  • This pattern-based approach is going to be the basis for a whole series of "Practical X Pathology" texts from Elsevier.

Breast

• Frederick Koerner, Diagnostic Problems in Breast Pathology, 2008
  • Organized into sections on epithelial proliferations, papillary proliferations, sclerosing lesions, and fibroepithelial lesions.
  • Useful "chatty" approach that is good for learners, focusing on criteria. Other breast texts seem to assume you are already an expert in breast pathology (for example, all mention "streaming" in ADH, but do not explain what this means); this book is much more approachable.
  • Online Expert Consult access.

Dermpath

• Rapini, Practical Dermatopathology, 2005
  • Hands down, the FIRST dermpath book you should buy! It is not a comprehensive text, but more of a guide book. Useful for beginners and for pros in dermpath (because it explains things in a way that even experts might benefit from when they want to teach their residents).
  • Fantastic, short and sweet primer in dermpath. Covers the majority of common and uncommon lesions that you will see in routine dermpath signout.
  • Many high quality pictures, with arrows and labels explaining what you are looking at.
  • Great index of differential diagnoses listed in the front of the book based on morphological findings (e.g. - Brown Deposits: Dematiacious Fungi, Formalin Pigment, Melanin, Hemosiderin, etc, etc).
  • As a bonus, it is very cheap compared to many other texts (~$125 on Amazon)

• McKee, Pathology of the Skin, 3rd Ed, 2005
  • Great comprehensive dermpath text. A two volume work.
  • Excellent micro AND clinical photos. The best book for great dermpath pics that I have seen yet.
  • Cons: Large and expensive. But worth it if you are going into dermpath.
  • 2nd Edition is also great and definitely worth buying if you find it for a good deal.

• Elder, Lever's Histopathology of the Skin, 10th Ed, 2008
  • Good, solid, one-volume comprehensive dermpath reference.
  • Not as fancy as McKee or Weedon perhaps, but a cheaper alternative.

• Weedon, Skin Pathology, 3rd Ed, 2009
  • Excellent 2 volume comprehensive reference of dermpath.
  • Nicely written and easy to understand and read.

Soft Tissue/Bone Pathology

• Weiss and Goldblum, Enzinger and Weiss's Soft Tissue Tumors, 5th Ed, 2007
  • THE comprehensive and exhaustive reference for soft tissue tumors.
  • Loaded with excellent photos.
  • Contains radiographic information and images.
  • Very well written explanations of difficult entities.
  • In depth discussion of molecular and immunohistochemical features of sarcomas and other soft tissue neoplasms.

• WHO, Pathology and Genetics of Tumours of Soft Tissue and Bone, 2002
  • Shorter and cheaper than Weiss's text, but less comprehensive.
  • Still has plenty of good pictures.
  • The standard reference for classification and nomenclature of soft tissue tumors.
  • Nicely organized.
  • Available free on the web.

• Bullough, Orthopaedic Pathology, 5th ed., 2009
  • Standard text in bone pathology.
  • Lots of great pictures.
  • Large format is fun, but may not fit on your shelf (physically).
  • Lots of information on non-neoplastic bone pathology in addition to tumors.

Cytopathology

DeMay, The Art and Science of Cytopathology, 1996

• Now modestly out of date, this beautifully produced two-volume set is still a gold standard in cytology.
• Innovative presentation makes this a memorable read.
• Due to large size, may be unwieldy for some learners.
• Truly a work of art (even for those who don't love cytology!), well written, with excellent color photos.
• As mentioned above, the age of this book is most apparent in the pap cytology photos, almost all of which are conventional paps.
• New edition scheduled to come out in 2011

DeMay, Practical Principles of Cytopathology Revised , 2007

• "Baby DeMay", often cited as the only cyto book you will need for AP boards
• May be a little too superficial, depending on how much you like cytology.

Cibas, Cytology: Diagnostic Principles and Clinical Correlates, 3rd ed., 2009

• A quick and practical guide to cytology at the resident level.
• Purchase includes online access to text and images.

Solomon, The Bethesda System for Reporting Cevical Cytology , 2004

• Key reference for Pap smears, including criteria.
• Read multiple times during cytology rotations.
• Said to be essential for boards success.
• Certainly a high-yield purchase at barely $30.

Autopsy and Forensics

• Dolinak MD, David et al. Forensic Pathology, Principles and Practice. ISBN-13:978-0-12-219951-6
  • Excellent general forensic pathology text covering all of the major topics, with good color photos.
  • Somewhat "case based," with brief example cases highlighting most of the points.
  • Useful for the general pathologist who occasionally is involved in forensic cases, forensic pathology fellows, and forensic pathologists.

• Spitz MD, Werner and Daniel and Fisher MD, Russell. Spitz And Fisher's Medicolegal Investigation Of Death: Guidelines For The Application Of Pathology To Crime Investigation ISBN-13: 978-0398075446
  • Excellent detailed text with pretty good greyscale photos and numerous high profile contributors.
  • More difficult to read than most forensic pathology texts, compensated for by the detail and references.
  • Useful primarily for forensic pathology fellows and forensic pathologists.

• DiMaio MD, Vincent J. and Dominick. Forensic Pathology, Second Edition. ISBN 0-8493-0072-x
  • Good general forensic pathology text covering the major topics.
  • Useful for the general pathologist who occasionally is involved in forensic cases, forensic pathology fellows, and forensic pathologists.

• Mittleman, MD, FASCP, Roger; Wetli, MD, FASCP Charles. An Atlas of Forensic Pathology. ISBN: 0891894306

Clinical Pathology

Hematopathology

• WHO Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissue, 4th Edition
  • Great book. The standard for classifying hematologic malignancies.
  • Tons of color images.
  • Easy to read highlighted tables with lists of defining criteria for different entities.
  • Short and sweet, like most of the WHO series. Also pretty cheap.

• Ioachim's Lymph Node Pathology, 4th Edition
  • Fantastic images.
  • Very useful tables and charts (CD markers, B and T cell stages of development, etc)
• Bone Marrow Pathology, Third Edition (2 Vol set), Kathryn Foucar

Microbiology

• Koneman's Color Atlas and Textbook of Diagnostic Microbiology, 6th Edition
  • A classic text for microbiology.
  • Tons of great images. The color images from Koneman are a must to study before the board exam!

Molecular Pathology

• Tsongalis, Molecular Diagnostics: For the Clinical Laboratorian
  • Lots of detailed info on molecular testing modalities.
  • Somewhat dry, but explains the material well and is not unmanageable.
  • Figures are all black and white; no color.

• Coleman and Tsongalis, Molecular Pathology: The Molecular Basis of Human Disease
  • Easier to read and more disease focused (rather than method focused) than Molecular Diagnostics: For the Clinical Laboratorian.
  • Prettier book with more figures and images (in color)
  • Less intense detail than the Molecular Diagnostics book though.
  • This is a good basic guide to the important molecular concepts that a pathologist should know
  • But it is not the comprehensive book that a molecular lab director would need.