[Histonet] weekend fixation

[Richard Cartun]

Dear Colleagues:

Please keep in mind that the ASCO/CAP guidelines are "recommendations", not mandates. You can experiment, validate, and establish your own formalin-fixation protocol for breast specimens. At Hartford Hospital I have established a minimum of 4.5 hours for needle core specimens. This includes 0.5 hour of pre-processor fixation and 4 hours of fixation on our tissue processors. We do use the 6 hour minimum for all excisional specimens. WE HAVE NO MAXIMUM FIXATION TIME. I can show you absolutely beautiful HER2 immunoreactivity and gene amplification on breast cancer tissues that have been fixed for 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, and longer. If you don't agree with the guidelines, work with your pathologist(s) and establish your own fixation policy. And, please remember, fixation time is only one piece to the puzzle. In my experience, minimizing ischemic time, making sure that the tissue does not dry out prior to fixation, and submitting thin (2 mm) sections are probably more important than fixation time.

Richard

Richard W. Cartun, Ph.D.
Director, Histology & Immunopathology
Director, Biospecimens
Assistant Director, Anatomic Pathology
Hartford Hospital
80 Seymour Street
Hartford, CT  06102
(860) 545-1596
(860) 545-0174 Fax
>>> "Mike Pence" 05/20/10 6:10 PM >>> 
Yeah. Good luck with that one. The minimum clearly states 6 hrs. 

Mike 

-----Original Message----- 
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu 
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of 
sgoebel <@t> xbiotech.com 
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 3:08 PM 
To: LINDA MARGRAF 
Cc: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu 
Subject: RE: [Histonet] weekend fixation 



>From what I have seen and heard you can have fixation times up to=2 
hours and still be ok? 

Sarah Goebel, B.A., HT (ASCP) 

<=iv> 

Histo=echnician 

XBiotech USA Inc. 

8201 East Rivers=de Dr. Bldg 4 Suite 100 

Austin, Texas 78744 
(512)386-5107 

-------- Original Message -------- 
Subject: [Histonet] weekend fixation 
From: "LINDA MARGRAF" 
Date: Thu, May 20, 2010 12:04 pm 
To: 
Histonetters: 
Here's a message I was asked to post...... 
Dear Colleagues, 
I have the following question concerning tissue processing. We do 
a 
lot o= IHC work on NF fixed tissue. To standardize and minimize the 
effect of NF=ixation, we fixate the tissue always for 24h. This is 
of course a problem=for tissues taken on Friday. In the past, we 
asked our technicians to come=n Saturday to embed the tissues in 
paraffin. Unfortunately, this is not p=ssible anymore, and that is 
why I need your advice. What would you suggest= 1) to leave the 
tissue in NF until Sunday evening and start processing, =r 2) to 
keep the fixation time (24 hours) and leave the tissue in alcohol 
70% until Sunday evening and then start processing. 
Thanks for your advice. 
Kind regards, 
Wim. 
Prof. dr. Wim Van den Broeck, DVM, MSc, PhD 
Cell biology and Histology 
Department of Morphology - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine 
Ghent University 
Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, BELGIUM 
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