Dear Dave, Not all facilities have a pathologist on standby to read the specimen at the time of the surgery.
Chemotherapy is not given first because we do not know for sure that this is cancer that we are dealing with (that can only be confirmed by looking at the specimen under the microscope by the pathologist). If cancer is found there are different types of cancer cells, the cancer cell type is a piece of information that is needed to be able to recommend if chemotherapy is needed, and which chemotherapy would be most effective.
thanx for the reply,i understand the context of frozen section and i know that the frozen section will not be 100% conclusive but it just seems like upfront surgery in a way. a frozen section is only done in certain hospitals,why is this?.has anyone thought about chemo first to smallen the mass, could this ever be a possibillity?..