It's a worrying paradox that just as molecular pathology is transforming patient management, recruitment to pathology jobs is slowing down. Pathologists don't sell themselves well, however, and many are steadfastly refusing to adapt to the reality of targeted treatment of, not only cancer, but also other common conditions where the application of the new genetic approaches to unravelling the pathogenesis of disease is lagging behind oncology. Medical oncologists do not, in contrast, hide their lights under any bushels! (and I speak as one of their ranks, but one with a further degree in pathology). The din made in trumpeting the arrival of the new dawn of personalised medicine, local treatment shaped to cleverly imaged tumours, tricky molecules fashioned to hit a single crucial cell receptor has drowned out the agonies of the pathologists who have to make the sophisticated molecular diagnoses without which none of the above will happen. You can't sensibly give a patient a targeted therapy, if you don't know what target is expressed in that particular patient's tumour. It sounds so obvious, but we now have a problem. Shortage of pathologists is rife, good training in molecular pathology is hard to find, and as a result, quality is deteriorating and unacceptable errors are being made all over Europe in the accurate reporting of pathology findings.

As a first attempt to explore the issue and to offer a truly world class educational module, ecancer is presenting Professor Beppe Viale from the European Institute of Oncology, who gives a masterclass in "Optimal Her2 Testing". He underlines the importance of accurate measurement of Her2 prior to decision making in breast and gastric cancers, shows the pitfalls, and simply tells you how to do both immunochemical and FISH assays. A superb advertisement for molecular diagnostic pathology.