**5. Conclusions**

Errors in Pathology laboratory can result in serious adverse patient outcomes, with catastrophic results. False-negative outcomes in oncologic diagnosis result in a dangerous delay in adequate treatment. As opposed, to false-positive diagnosis, the patient can be submitted to several unnecessary procedures, such as extensive surgical resections, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy. It is difficult to imagine in which of the scenes the impact is greater: the delay of imperative treatment or an unwanted treatment for a healthy patient. In both situations, the consequences can be devastating—adverse effects or mutilations in treatment without clinical indications, with possibly fatal consequences, besides medical and legal consequences for the pathologist or laboratory involved in the biopsy process, with serious risks to the credibility and reputation of the pathologist and the laboratory.

The aim of any pathology laboratory must be establishing procedures that optimize quality control, such as additional case reviews and review of their laboratory techniques, to reduce interpretive errors or discrepancies in pathology reports. The quality formation, knowledge, and experience of the pathologist is crucial for diagnostic accuracy and the greater investment of laboratories, greater than higher technologies, must be continuing medical education for these professionals.

The taboo around the diagnostic error in pathology should be broken. It is not possible to discuss the quality controls of laboratories without admitting the possibility of error. Investing in continuing medical education, with emphasis on patient safety, as well as on the training of new pathologists, with a critical view aimed at reducing errors, is an obligatory path in improving the pathology practice.
