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As a pathologist and co-editor of a pathology periodical publication, it is a privilege to be given the opportunity to write about case reports, since I am familiarized with them. The limited accessibility to cutting-edge technology in order to carry out research that enables writing original articles with relevant scientific merit, explains the high percentage of case reports in Mexican journals in comparison with more renowned Anglo Saxon journals. Case reports are written by doctors to share their experience, to lay out questions and to leave tracks that enable making deeper investigations on the subject. In the 19th century, the most common way to share medical experiences was by means of these type of documents, with an emphasis on anatomic pathology. It was in the 20th century when the clinical case structure we are now familiarized with was characterized; it starts with an introduction, followed by a description of the case and the discussion as final part1. Case reports are becoming a cause of dilemma for medical journal editors, since their hierarchy among the different types of medical writings is low; an argument for not accepting them is that rarely are they cited, which decreases the valued impact factor by means of which the quality of a periodical medical publication is rated. On the other hand, when an author is evaluated, assessing committees give a low curricular value to this type of documents. These are the two main arguments for leaving them at a low level of evidence, even when there isn’t a single article in medical literature explicitly focused on pointing out the scant usefulness of case reports; however, it is argued that most of them lack a scientific or educational purpose, that they are used as an excuse to write and thereby generate curriculum, for administrative procedures, such as dissertation papers, and that they are poorly written. On the other hand, there are some articles advocating for their inclusion in medical literature. Currently, medical practice is guided by evidence-based medicine, which has made for case reports, which were vital to the advance of medicine until late into the 20th century, to undeservingly have lost their reputation and to be now considered anecdotic rather than scientific reports and inferior to other studies. Thus, the question arises: are they of any value in medical literature?2 The answer of a pathologist is with no doubt yes. They are useful in two aspects of medicine: on one hand, they are a way to draw physicians’ attention on new diseases, and on the other, their role in education and quality control is undeniable. – New diseases. The most common form to deal with new diseases is related to the reclassification of existing entities, such as in neoplastic diseases of all organ systems, whereof new classifications periodically appear published by the World Health Organization. This also occurs in inflammatory (infectious and non-infectious), metabolic, genetic, degenerative, etc. conditions. An example of a disease that was regarded as new at its moment and that is related to the importance of case report publication is AIDS.3 New mutations that are responsible of genetic diseases are often informed as case reports, which provides with clues to their pathogenesis.4 Recognition of new diseases goes hand in hand with the recognition of new etiologies. Lung cancer and its close relationship with the habit of

El dilema de los editores: ¿debe o no aceptarse el reporte de casos para publicación?