[Histonet] IHC QC's

[Patti Loykasek]

I'm glad that everyone is so concerned with both negative and positive IHC
controls. There is certainly more than one side to this issue. I will say
that I don't think a positive QC on every slide is absolutely necessary, for
many reasons. If the QC is rare & precious, then it is a waste of resources.
As is running a negative control for every possible technique permutation on
small amounts of tumor. I would rather have slides with tumor left for
additional studies than have wasted tumor sections on 4-6 negative controls.
You can always evaluate non-specific staining on slides that have had an
antibody applied & that are negative with that antibody. The CAP is specific
that positive controls be used for each antibody - see  CAP checklist
ANP.22550. They do not specify for each slide. Since positive QC's should be
kept filed for the same number of years as the patient slide & records, it
should be possible to pull a QC slide from the IHC run for a particular
slide. In the CAP comment on ANP.22550, the use of internal QC's is also
mentioned. Although there are many ways of dealing with the issue of QC's,
I'm sure we all want to do what is prudent, abide by the regulations, and
increase the level of patient care.
Just my 2 cents worth.

Patti Loykasek
Phenopath Laboratories
Seattle, WA
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