Pathologist's ability to read cell types

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  Thanks for taking my question.
  I just had a biopsy on a 'mass' in my temporal lobe. The statement was
  made that the pathologists may not be able to tell if it's a low grade
  glioma or possible scar tissue. My question, would any similarities in
  abnormal appearance between scar cells and glioma tumor cells make it
  difficult for a pathologist to tell the difference? How similar might
  they appear (I would assume they wouldn't be very similar)?
  Thanks
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Thanks for the question. The way you have worded the question I'm wondering if the final reading is out. Pathology specimens are usually read off frozen sections initially and then finally off the fixed blocks. It is sometimes difficult to define tissue based on frozen samples due to artifact. Even once the final tissue has beed read and all the special stains and cellular markers have been done we can not tell for sure what some tumors are. Part of this has to do with limitations of biopsy sampling tissue size. You are hoping that the tissue  you have is representative of the entire mass but sampling error can occur. "Scar" tissue can be present as abnormal astrocytes that are not that different from low grade astrocytomas depending on the sampling. Wht was the entire tumor not removed and were you having seizures? Many different tumor types are found in the temporal lobe some with a very good prognosis. If the pathology report is inconclusive you could always ask to have the slides read by another institution. If a definitive diagnosis can not be made then your options are to rebiopsy or follow with serial scans to look for any type of change in the area of abnormality. If you wish a referral to CCF cal 216 444 5559. Good luck
This information is provided for general medical education purposes. PLease consult your docotor regarding diagnostic and treatment options.