Evaluation of surgical margins in anatomic pathology: technical, conceptual, and clinical considerations

Virtually all anatomic pathologists are involved in the assessment of tissue margins in surgical procedures that are performed for malignant diseases. The natural tendency to view this process as uncomplicated has, in recent years, been countered by a body of literature on the biological milieu of the marginal zone. Moreover, empirical clinical information has shown that "negative" and "positive" marginal status has an imperfect correlation with risk of recurrent disease in several organ systems and in reference to various tumor types. Problems also remain regarding the optimal techniques for pathologic sampling of margins; the possible roles, if any, of adjuvant (eg, immunohistologic and "molecular") procedures for margin evaluation, and reporting motifs for selected surgical resections. This review considers conceptual data now available on surgical margins, provides a working approach to the generic assessment of marginal surfaces, and presents organ- and tumor- specific information pertaining to this area of practice.