From Victor Prieto and his UT-MD Anderson colleagues: Tissue resources for clinical use and marker studies in melanoma

Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1102:679-95. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-727-3_37.

Tissue resources for clinical use and marker studies in melanoma.

Curry JL, Davies MA, Calderone TL, Nathanson K, Prieto VG, Gershenwald JE.

Source

Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.

Abstract

The adequate procurement and preservation of high-quality tissue specimens from patients with melanoma is a critical clinical issue as patients' tumor samples are now used not only for pathological diagnosis but are also necessary to determine the molecular signature of the tumor to stratify patients who may benefit from targeted melanoma therapy. Tissue resources available for physicians and investigators include formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue and frozen tissue, either preserved in optimal cutting temperature (OCT) media or snap frozen. Properly preserved tissue may be used to evaluate melanoma biomarkers by immunohistochemistry (IHC) with tissue microarray (TMA) technology, to perform genetic and genomic analyses, and for other types of translational research in melanoma.