[Histonet] Re: IBF and prostates-your experience

[Robert Richmond]

Greg Dobbin at Charlottetown PE asks >>If I were to use IBF for the
collection of prostate cores and they only fixed in IBF for 3 hrs
before being transferred to 10% formalin for processing with
everything else, are the benefits of better nuclear morphology still
likely to be realized?<< Greg goes on to describe Surgipath's IBF as
containing alcohols, barium chloride, and a smaller amount of
formaldehyde.

I think this is an extremely bad idea. The histopathological standards
for diagnosing prostate cancer depend on neutral buffered formalin
fixation. NBF fixation demonstrates nucleoli only in tumor cells,
while other fixatives can demonstrate nucleoli in benign prostate
cells also. I don't see any benefit in the off-brand fixation, and it
can lead an unaware pathologist into a disastrous overdiagnosis.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN