[Anatomical pathology and molecular diagnosis]

150 years ago, R. Virchow proposed a "cellular pathology" theory that forced one to revise many concepts of the mechanisms responsible for the development of disease and marked the beginning and further development of anatomical pathology as an independent discipline. Rapid progress in immunology, genetics, biotechnology, and cellular and molecular biology in the late 1980s to the early 1990s gave rise to a new field, namely molecular medicine. Damage changes the profile of expression some genes, activates various signal systems, and, due to of intercellular and cellular-matrix interactions, then spreads first at the level of organs, then at that of the whole body if a pathological process cannot localize. By involving some cells, the pathological process cannot cause characteristic morphological changes and therefore traditional studies yield a negative result. Molecular pathology became a necessary additional tool in the work of a pathologist, by allowing him to obtain the information that had been earlier beyond the reach, which increased the validity of diagnosis. Some points of the Virchow "cellular pathology" theory are supported by molecular pathology.