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Introduction on Genome-wide Expression Profiling from Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Tissues Using Microarrays

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Guidelines for Molecular Analysis in Archive Tissues

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Abstract

Recently established new technologies provide proof of principle that relevant information on tumor biology can be extracted from routine FFPE cancer tissues by microarray analyses. New protocols for RNA processing of FFPE specimens revealed similar results as compared to the frozen tissue samples. This appears to be surprising given the fact that formalin fixation produces significant chemical modification of the RNA that depends on fixation conditions and times. A key success factor of the current approach might be that the processing of core needle biopsies which were used in the majority of studies is more standardized compared to the general routine processing of other FFPE tissue samples.

This opens great new opportunities for the integration of gene expression analysis into the FFPE sample-based routine workflow of cancer diagnostics. Using FFPE biopsies, microarray analyses can be performed preoperatively and in parallel to histology and immunohistochemistry from the very same material used for diagnostics. As a consequence, the full molecular diagnostic spectrum can be executed early and exploited for an optimized and individualized treatment of patients. This is particularly important when increasingly popular neoadjuvant treatment is planned.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the BMBF, grant 01ES0725 NEO-PREDICT and by the European Commission, FP7 grant 200327 METAcancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pathology, Charité University Hospital, Berlin, Germany

    Manfred Dietel, Jan Budczies, Wilko Weichert & Carsten Denkert

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  1. Manfred Dietel
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. c/o Ospedale di Cattinara, University of Trieste, Strada di Fiume 447, Trieste, 34149, Italy

    Giorgio Stanta

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Dietel, M., Budczies, J., Weichert, W., Denkert, C. (2011). Introduction on Genome-wide Expression Profiling from Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Tissues Using Microarrays. In: Stanta, G. (eds) Guidelines for Molecular Analysis in Archive Tissues. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17890-0_35

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17890-0_35

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