[Adequacy of histopathology request forms and pathological reports of breast cancer surgical specimens in Benin]

Breast cancer requires multidisciplinary management. Pathologists and physicians communicate using the histopathology request form and the pathology report. There are some minimal criteria that both should respect.

We assessed the adequacy of histopathology request forms and pathology reports in the management of female breast cancer specimens in Southern Benin.

This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, with retrospective data collection over 57 months (4 years and 9 months). The adequacy of the histopathology request forms and pathology reports was assessed on the basis of the recommendations of the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) of France. Data processing was done using SPSS software. We checked frequencies with the Chi² test, with a significance level set at 5%.

31.3% of histopathology request forms complied with HAS recommendations. Pathology reports were presented in a narrative way in 92.7% of cases and 68.8% met the minimal criteria. The presence of vascular embolus, of hormone receptors and the HER2 status were all reported in only 29.2% of the reports.

The draft of histopathology request forms and pathology reports did not comply to the required minimal criteria. This situation could mainly be explained by the inexistence of consensus between physicians and pathologists and by the lack of immunohistochemistry. Editing national referentials and using synoptic reports would give better results.