Qing Kay Li
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA
Title: Improvement of cellular yield in the cell block preparation by using so-called ‘Blood Clot’ technique in Trans bronchial Needle Aspiration (TBNA) biopsy of lung cancers
Biography
Biography: Qing Kay Li
Abstract
Currently, the targeted therapy of cancers has changed the diagnostic and therapeutic paradigm of lung cancers from primarily morphological assessment of tumors to molecular analysis of genetic alterations in tumor cells. The molecular analysis requests certain quantity of tumor cells However, the cellularity of the conventional cell block (CB) preparation, particularly in TBNA specimens, is often low and inadequate for molecular study. We routinely apply a novel ‘blood clot’ technique (CB-BC) to improve the cellular yield in the CB preparation during TBNA procedures. By this technique, the cellular material within the aspirate needle is allowed to form a blood clot (CB-BC), and then, the cellular material is fixed in the formalin and processed in the histological laboratory. This technique enable us to improve the cellularity in the CB. We have compared this novel technique with conventional method (CB-NR) in the CB preparation. We have found that 84.6% of lung and 88.8% of lymph node samples have yielded sufficient material for diagnosis, immunohistochemistry studies and molecular analyses. In contrast, the conventional CB-NR method has yielded approximately 50% to 70% of the diagnostic rate. This novel technique improves the cellular yield, and provides material for molecular study without compromising the cytomorphological features of tumor cells.
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