Pitfalls in pulmonary pathology

A wide variety of diagnostic problems arise in pulmonary pathology, and many originate in small biopsy interpretation. The purpose of this document is to discuss those areas which are recurrently problematic to the surgical pathologist. The review is in three sections. The first deals with the diagnostic problems generated by biopsy artefacts and non-specific changes. The second highlights those problematic benign (reactive) pathological processes and those benign conditions which mimic neoplasia. The third highlights the more common diagnostic and terminological pitfalls in tumour pathology and neoplasia which mimics various benign processes.