HER2A study in the Journal of Histotechnology highlights the all-too-real risk of errors that can be made in the processing of biopsy tissue in anatomic pathology labs.

The journal reports on the eye-opening outcome of the Stainer Bath Cross Contamination Challenge, developed by Ventana Medical Systems Inc, Tucson, Ariz, a member of the Roche Group, in which 70 pathology labs from six countries on three continents participated.

The Challenge demonstrates that human tissue can easily migrate from one biopsy slide to another slide in the traditional tissue sample preparation process used in many of today’s pathology labs, and this cross-contamination can lead to misdiagnosis.

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Each one of the 70 pathology labs that participated in the Challenge reported some tissue contamination, ranging from three to 3,018 qualified contaminants.

The study also found up to 36% of patient simulator slides contained migrated tissue. As millions of patient slides are processed annually worldwide using old dip-and-dunk technologies, the risks for misdiagnosis from tissue cross contamination are substantial.

More information about patient safety in the lab can be found at SaferPath.org

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