Simple, Inexpensive, and Precise Paraffin Tissue Microarrays Constructed With a Conventional Microcompound Table and a Drill Grinder

Application of a novel and low cost technique to construct paraffin tissue microarrays out of paraffinised needle biopsy specimens from patients with breast cancer

“…PNBSs which are routinely rapidly placed in formalin are often better preserved, and therefore more appropriate for the evaluation of protein expression or other molecular examinations than tumours in resection or mastectomy specimens which are not dissected early enough to be well fixed, or which are sent in with insufficient quantities of fixative. The acquisition of a drill grinder, drill stand and a microcompound table for the PNBSs–TMA construction costs less than US$300, constitutes the only investment and can be used for manufacturing numerous TMAs 1. All other technical material belongs to the standard laboratory equipment of an institute of pathology.…”

“…Additionally, paraffin tissue core biopsies from routine paraffin blocks of 57 corresponding resection and mastectomy specimens (RM) were also investigated by conventional TMA (RM–TMA) as described previously 1 2. For 27 PNBSs no corresponding RM material could be investigated, mainly due to surgery being performed elsewhere, no residual tumour following neoadjuvant therapy, or insufficient quantity of tumour in the retrieved resection material.…”

“…A conventional bare paraffin block (recipient block) was predrilled using a microcompound table and drill grinder mounted on a drill stand (total equipment cost: less than US$300) as described previously (number of holes: 187; diameter of the holes: 1.4 mm; distance of the holes: 0.3 mm; depth of the holes: 5 mm) 1. Routinely H&E stained slides of the 96-needle biopsy specimens were screened for areas where the breast carcinoma was equally distributed within a 4 mm long section (figure 1A).…”

Frequent expression of follicular dendritic cell markers in Hodgkin lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma

“…Tissue microarray (TMA) blocks of HL and ALCL were manufactured as previously described 21. Duplicate samples of the core tissues (2 mm, 3 mm or 5 mm in diameter, according to the original tissue volume) were taken from the individual donor blocks and arranged in new recipient TMA paraffin blocks using a trephine apparatus.…”

The construction of high-density paraffin tissue microarrays with 0.43-mm-diameter paraffin tissue core biopsies is technically feasible

“…1a). The holes in the paraffin receptor block were drilled using an ordinary microcompound table and a drill grinder or a computer numerical control (CNC) drilling machine as described in earlier papers [6,7]. Briefly, an ordinary paraffin block with a plastic cassette was fixed in a small water bath milled out of a block of polyvinyl chloride.…”