Mina L. Xu, MD

Mina Xu, MD, is a pathologist who specializes in diagnosing blood diseases and blood cancers—also called hematopathology. Her clinical practice focuses on giving the most accurate diagnosis and prognosis on tumors such as lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma. At Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Xu is the director of hematopathology and is an associate professor in the departments of pathology and of laboratory medicine. Her academic mission is to study the pathogenesis of human hematopoietic malignancies and translate these findings into diagnostic and therapeutic advances in the field.

“Our role as pathologists includes running specialty tests on patient samples, such as protein analysis or molecular genetic testing, and most importantly, interpreting microscopic images of tissue samples,” Dr. Xu says, adding that she occasionally speaks directly to patients who are interested in learning more about their diseases. “Because we make such critical decisions that guide treatment, we should not be separated from patient care.”

Dr. Xu believes a single biopsy can be thought of as a piece of a larger story. “When you see a tumor evolving from different biopsies, you can put that part of the story into a larger narrative and help patients understand how the disease is changing,” says Dr. Xu. “Some of the success stories in my field center around finding ways to tailor our treatment to the specific genetic abnormality of an otherwise fatal cancer and make it a chronic or curable condition.”