Specialty Content

Histology / Cellular Pathology specialty

Cellular Pathology covers tissue fixation, processing, microtomy, staining (H&E and special), immunohistochemistry, and case grading.

Where the content lives

• The Cellular Pathology Laboratory (Premium) — /cellular-pathology-lims — the full laboratory simulation, with four workspaces and saved progress:
  • Worklist — the autoverification run that happened before you arrived, the exception queue it produced, specimen tracking, critical result notification, report lifecycle and departmental KPIs. Each held case says which rule held it and what to check. Cellular pathology releases far less automatically than haematology or biochemistry, and that is correct rather than a gap.
  • Bench — macroscopic description and block selection, microtomy, immunohistochemistry, special stains, frozen section and QC status
  • Report — staging attribution (state the TNM version and edition), double reporting and discordance, MDT and cancer pathway tracking, referral laboratories, and the Histology Result Interpreter opened on the case in hand
  • Learn — digital pathology validation against the RCPath protocol, the UK NEQAS ICC & ISH cycle scored out of 20, cancer pathways and the current waiting times standards, turnaround against RCPath KPIs, UKAS accreditation, and your portfolio evidence export
  • /histology-lims redirects here.
• Specialty page — /histology-interviews — guides, simulators and case studies, with the link into the Interview Explorer question bank (Bands 2 to 8). The LIMS is embedded on this page with the same four workspaces, but its Learn workspace is a shorter version — the digital pathology validation exercise, the EQA cycle, the cancer pathways module and the portfolio export are on the full laboratory only.
• Embedded guides — tissue fixation and processing, microtomy, H&E staining, special stains, immunohistochemistry (IHC), frozen sections, specimen handling and orientation
• Six grading modules (Premium) — see Histology Grading article:
  • /histology/grading/gleason — prostate (Grade Group 1-5, ISUP 2014/2019)
  • /histology/grading/her2 — breast HER2 IHC (0, 1+, 2+, 3+) + ISH
  • /histology/grading/nottingham — breast Nottingham histological grade
  • /histology/grading/bethesda — cervical cytology
  • /histology/grading/breslow-clark — melanoma
  • /histology/grading/staining-quality — H&E and special-stain QC
• Histology Result Interpretation — /histology/result-interpretation — AI-assisted case interpretation
• Day-in-life — /biomedical-sciences/day-in-life-cellular-pathology-histopathology-biomedical-scientist
• Specialist Portfolio (Cellular Pathology) — /portfolio → choose the Cellular Pathology discipline card, then select Specialist Diploma in the AI Assistant tab. Includes evidence examples at /biomedical-sciences/ibms-specialist-portfolio-cellular-pathology-histopathology.

Key competencies covered

• Tissue fixation (formalin), processing (paraffin embedding)
• Microtomy — section quality, troubleshooting
• H&E and special stains (PAS, trichrome, etc.)
• Immunohistochemistry — antibody selection, controls, interpretation
• Frozen sections — intra-operative consult
• Specimen handling — orientation, dissection, dictation
• Grading (the six modules above)
• Quality assurance — slide quality audit, NEQAS Cellular Pathology

Bands progression

• Band 5 (£32,073-£39,043) — qualified BMS performing tissue processing, microtomy, routine staining
• Band 6 (£39,959-£48,117) — specialist staining, IHC interpretation under supervision, training, validation; usually requires Specialist Portfolio in Cellular Pathology
• Band 7 (£49,387-£56,515) — section lead, complex case review, training officer, MDT contribution
• Advanced Specialist — IBMS Advanced Specialist Diploma (e.g. autopsy practice) for senior roles

Standards alignment

• Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) datasets for each tumour type (current editions)
• ASCO/CAP guidelines for HER2 interpretation
• ISUP 2014 (with 2019 update) Gleason consensus
• WHO Classification of Tumours — latest edition per organ
• Bethesda 2014 (cervical), Bethesda for thyroid where applicable
• ISO 15189:2022 quality framework
• UK NEQAS Cellular Pathology

Common interview question themes (Band 5-7)

• "Walk me through how you would process a complex resection specimen"
• "How would you respond to a stain that is consistently failing QC?"
• "How do you validate a new IHC antibody?"
• "Describe how you would handle a frozen section that contradicts the formalin-fixed report"
• "How does ISUP 2019 modify Gleason grading?"

Pair Practice Tests filtered to Histology with the six grading modules and the IBMS portfolio assistant for full preparation.