Preparation of samples
When / who does the tissue resection? How soon should the resections be packed?
The tumour sample comes from a surgical specimen or biopsy fragment.
The tumour sample must be received at the medical laboratory within 48 hours of the physician taking the sample (tumour removal).
Once collected, the sample should be placed as soon as possible in the tubes containing the transport medium provided, and then placed at 2-8°C. The sample should never be fixed or frozen.
Transport tubes should be ordered in advance, in a time frame compatible with their own delivery.
How / Who decides which part of the resected tumour will be shipped?
The entire sample taken by the doctor (tumour sample) is sent to the pathologists.
The pathologist decides whether it is possible to reserve part of the fragment for the Oncogram®.
If so, the pathologist selects a fragment of the tumour sample with as many living tumour cells as possible (without necrotic tissue or blood vessels if possible) and as little stroma as possible.
Do the Oncogramme® kits contain procedures associated with the use of transport tubes?
You can find more information in this article.
How will the laboratory processing the biopsy separate the tumour cells from the normal cells?
After receiving the tissue fragment, the cells are dissociated and placed in a culture flask or plate.
The culture medium developed by Oncomedics is specific and selective for colorectal cancer tumour cells.
It allows through the culture process to obtain a virtually pure culture of tumour cells.
This is an advantage of the Oncomedics system over other non-tumour cell and tumour cell differentiation systems.