It is important to wear gloves when handling the tumor tissue, in order not to allow RNAses from the hands to destroy the RNA that is needed for the analysis. The unfixed tumor tissue should be taken to the pathology department immediately after surgery, since a representative biopsy must be taken within an hour after the surgery.

The representative biopsy should preferably be taken with the provided biopsy punch that has a diameter of 6 mm. This will ensure that a standardised amount of tumor tissue will be taken. Alternatively, if this is deemed impossible, please send us what you think can be spared as long as it is good quality (not too external, not too internal), with a minimum diameter of 3 mm. Make sure that you have a good overview of the different sections of the tumor when the biopsy is taken so that a representative biopsy is achieved.

The centre of the tumor is often necrotic, while the edges of the tumor often contains many stromal cells, which in both cases will lead to less than 50% of tumour cells being present in the biopsy. This means that not enough representative RNA can be isolated. The best spot to perform the biopsy is the periphery of the tumor.




Place the biopsy directly in the preservative solution of the sample tube provided. Place an ID-sticker on the tissue sample tube. Seal small tube by firmly placing tamper seal over tube and cap. Place the small tube into a large tube and put it into the envelope.

The sample is stable for a week in the preservation solution at room temperature, but it should preferably be sent to the central laboratory in Amsterdam immediately after the biopsy has been taken. If the doctor would like to keep the sample a certain period before sending it to the central laboratory in Amsterdam then the following storage protocol is required: store the sample overnight at 4°C in the preservation fluid (a regular refrigerator is sufficient). After that, the sample can be stored up to a month at -20C. The sample can be thawed and shipped at room temperature to the central laboratory in Amsterdam.

Any questions concerning this gene expression analysis may be directed to Ferrer inCode +34 93 600 38 83 or [email protected].