Omentum

Morphology and diagnostic patterns in omental specimens — staging value, metastatic disease, sampling adequacy, and benign mimics.

Purpose

Consolidate the group’s omental work: what is being submitted, how it is sampled, and which findings actually change management.

Data used

Omental resections and biopsies with accompanying gross descriptions; de-identified WSIs on the Memorial share where available; primary tumour diagnoses linked via hashed accession IDs.

Methods

Case-mix description by indication (staging, symptomatic, incidental); gross and microscopic sampling adequacy; the spectrum of metastatic disease versus benign mimics (reactive mesothelium, torsion/infarct, inflammatory change); identification of cases where omental findings changed stage or management. Histology review in QuPath; descriptives via ClinicoPathDescriptives, agreement via meddecide.

Current state / open questions

Cohort identification active; sampling adequacy rubric at draft stage; metastatic case series in planning; benign-mimic teaching set drafted. Documented pitfalls: a positive staging omentectomy changes stage, so linkage to the primary tumour diagnosis must be confirmed before any aggregation; true metastatic deposits should not be conflated with transcoelomic surface implants without the gross correlate, as they are prognostically different; the number of tissue blocks sampled must appear as the denominator in every table, since sample-size-driven conclusions are a known temptation here.

Derived from: morphology/omentum.qmd.