Cytopathology

Biography

Biography: Miral Patel

Abstract

The traditional cellblock is an essential cytology preparation, which offers benefits over cytological smears by preservation of cell architecture and the performance of immunohistochemical studies. In the current era of minimally invasive techniques for obtaining tissue samples for diagnostic and prognostic markers, cellblocks containing “limited material” specimens are routinely used to provide the valuable information about pre-disease and disease processes. The methanol fixed and paraffin embedded cellblocks are prepared manually with minimal automation with their quality highly dependent upon the experience of the cytopreparation personnel. Currently, Cellient® automated cell block system is widely used for MFPE cellblock preparation to ensure consistent quality preparation by minimizing the operator dependency. Despite advances in technology, the relatively small size of the cytology scrapings MFPE cell blocks in comparison to the formalin fixed and paraffin embedded counterparts have caused them to be often overlooked in biomarker discovery. Recently, in the field of proteomics, there is an emphasis on utilizing limited tissue samples such as core biopsies and cellblocks for the evaluation of molecular biomarkers. These have the potential of being eventually converted into novel diagnostic marker assays that will aid in improving the efficacy of clinical intervention, as well as the validation of leads and targets. Proteomic platforms have developed over the past few years due to advances in scientific knowledge and technology with the next technologic leap being the application of proteomic technologies to the bedside. At present, there is a lack of established methods or resources for extracting proteins from MFPE cell blocks.