Armed Forces Institute of Pathology

It primarily provided second opinion diagnostic consultations on pathologic specimens such as biopsies from military, veteran, and civilian medical, dental, and veterinary sources.

The unique character of the AFIP rested in the expertise of its civilian and military staff of diagnostic pathologists whose daily work consisted of the study of cases that are difficult to diagnose owing to their rarity or their variation from the ordinary.

The AFIP's diagnostic departments were based on organ sites—e.g., dermatological, hepatic, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, pulmonary, soft tissue, bone, hematological, neurological, endocrine, and gynecological pathology.

A by-product was an unmatched repository of medical cases having extensive radiological images and pathological slides, a great source for studies in this field.

This was mainly the result of the participation of AFIP staff as panel members and reference center heads in the International Histological Classification of Tumors (IHCT) series of the World Health Organization (WHO).

[6] WHO reference and collaborating centers were established at the AFIP in a number of subjects aimed at international standardization of tumor nomenclature, classification, and diagnostic criteria.

AFIP staff played key roles in the Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) project of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).