Many diseases overlap with disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, skin, and lungs.
However, there are many syndromes as well as diseases which have peculiar presentations at this site. The pathologist may play an important role intraoperatively by performing frozen sections to determine the adequacy of surgical margins. Because many organs are relatively superficial, the pathologist may be called upon to perform a fine needle aspiration to make a rapid diagnosis of a tumor. Finally, cultures of head and neck specimens may sometimes require specialized media which the alert pathologist will utilize.