BackgroundTissue microarray technology has provided a high throughput means of evaluating potential biomarkers in archival pathological specimens. This study was carried out in order to produce tissue microarray blocks using mechanical pencil tips without high cost.MethodConventional mechanical pencil tips (Rotring Tikky II Mechanical Pencil 1.0 mm) were used to cut out 1 mm wax cylinders from the recipient block, creating from 36 to 72 holes. Three cores of tumor areas were punched out manually by using the mechanical pencil tips from donor paraffin embedded tissue blocks and transferred to the holes of the paraffin tissue microarrays.ResultsThis technique was easy and caused little damage to the donor blocks. We successfully performed H&E slides and immunodetection without substantial tissue cylinder loss.ConclusionOur mechanical pencil tip technique is the most inexpensive easy technique among the literature. It also takes a reasonable amount of time and reduces antibody consumption during immunohistochemistry

Background/Aim:Some biological factors play a role in stimulation of malignant growth, metastasis and angiogenesis; however, their clinical relevance has not yet been well established for most of them. This work was aimed at studying the clinical relevance of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin -6 (IL-6), in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).Materials and Methods:Preoperative serum levels of VEGF and IL-6 were measured by enzyme -linked immuno -assay in 35 CRC patients and in 30 healthy controls.Results:CRC patients with or without metastasis had significantly higher VEGF and IL-6 levels than healthy controls (all P < 0.001). Patients with advanced clinical stage had significantly higher levels of VEGF and IL-6 than those with early clinical stage (all P < 0.001). Also, patients with metastatic disease had significantly higher VEGF and IL-6 levels than those with localized disease (all P < 0.001). The diagnostic accuracy for invasiveness was 83% for VEGF (cut off value = 240 pg/ml) and 66% for IL-6 (cut off value = 6.7 pg/ml), with sensitivity 79% and 74% and specificity 68% and 59%, respectively.Conclusion:In CRC patients, preoperative measurement of serum VEGF and Il-6 may prove useful non-invasive diagnostic indicators associated with advanced clinical stage and tumor metastasis that warrants further investigations.

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We emphasize the inter- and intra-familial genetic heterogeneity among Egyptian patients with overlapping features of SLC29A3 disorders. This suggests the presence of other factors like regulatory genes or epigenetic factors that may explain variable disease manifestations and severity.