Burkitt's lymphoma: maximising the use of fine needle aspirates by long-term preservation for diagnosis and research

Abstract

Fine needle aspirates from Burkitt's lymphoma and other tumours transferred directly into ThinPrep® PreservCyt® (Cytyc UK Ltd, Crawley, UK) buffered alcohol fixative retain their cellular and viral antigens and nucleic acids for many months at ambient temperatures. Despite the presence of blood and debris, cells dried onto slides from droplets and post-fixed in formalin, or sections of paraffin-embedded cell blocks from formalin post-fixed pellets, prove adequate for morphology, immunocytochemistry, in-situ hybridization and molecular biological analyses. Where there is lack of expertise in making thin smears or hospitals lack pathology laboratories and services, PreservCyt® provides an excellent medium for transport elsewhere for diagnosis and research.

Overview of Nongynecological Samples Prepared with Liquid-Based Cytology Medium

“…A frequent differential diagnosis in cytology is lymphoma and the unavailability of flow cytometry is not uncommon. FNA specimens preserved in a liquid-based medium proved adequate for ancillary studies of lymphoma diagnosis such as ICC, in situ hybridization and molecular biological analyses [38,39]. …”

Stability of DNA, RNA, cytomorphology, and immunoantigenicity in Residual ThinPrep® Specimens

“…Thus, specimens preserved in alcohol-based fixatives may produce better results than formalin-fixed materials, which is important for molecular studies that depend on high quality samples to obtain the best results. The increased use of LBP residual materials in different types of research, including morphological and molecular studies, has led to a greater need for evaluating LBP sample quality (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9). There have been several reports regarding the quality of LBP samples with respect to RNA, DNA, or immunohistochemistry with or without examination of morphological changes in limited specimens (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15).…”