Technical Tips to Provide the Best Prostate Pathology on Needle Cores

Evaluate at least 3 slides for each block. Each slide should contain tissue from different levels of the specimen.. Don't skimp and look at the same the same level multiple times. Give the specimen the attention and time it deserves. Sure its small but we don't want the patient to have to get another biopsy just because you were too lazy to rigorously evalate the specimen the first time around. Go deeper into the block if the entire length of the a tissue core has not yet been sectioned. Sure it costs a little more money to do it right. It always does in the short run. Don't let a lawyer finding malignant tissue deeper in the block that you only superficially evaluated. Bad form. And expensive.

DO NOT use microwave processing to speed up turn-around-time (TAT). Remember that our primary responsibility is to the patient. Microwaving tissue compromizes patient care since it coagulates proteins and obliterates nuclear detail. Tell your marketing people that the decreased TAT is not worth the decrease in quality that microwaving causes.