Hi Jill, Have you tried using cases that you've already sent out to other labs and they've reported as ALK-positive? That is how we validated this assay in my lab. Most cases aren't "very" positive (you only have to find 15 cells out of a hundred that you count to call the case positive if a second observer agrees). You're supposed to look around for positive cells using your dual green/red filter. Since most tumor cells show a fused yellow or adjacent red & green signals, you really do have to look around for them a little. Because of that, I'd suggest doing the validation with cases that have a range of % of positve cells. If another lab calls a case positive at 25% positive cells then you'd want to get that result too most of the time.
That being said, I can send you some de-identified slides from a case of metastatic (to a node) NSCLC that is "super" positive. I do think it is helpful to see what a case with a very high % of positive cells look like. This is what we're using as our positive control. We think it's better to have a tissue control than the cell cultured cells, processed into cell blocks, that are on the slides sold by Abbott. Send me your address and fedex # if interested. Mark On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 9:20 AM, Johns, Jill <jjoh...@cpallab.com> wrote: > Does anybody have any lung tissue slides that are known to be positive for > the ALK gene rearrangement or know of a source to obtain them? We are > trying to validate this FISH assay are having a very difficult time finding > any positive specimens (we have Abbott's positive control slides, but they > do not look like "real" tissue specimens)....Thanks!! > > Jill A. Johns, MT(ASCP)SH, QCym, CCy > Manager of Flow Cytometry and Molecular Diagnostics > Central PA Alliance Laboratory (CPAL) > 1803 Mt. Rose Ave., Suite C3/C4 > York, PA 17403 > phone: (717) 851-4320 > fax: (717) 851-1450 > email: jjoh...@cpallab.com<mailto:jjoh...@cpallab.com> > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > This e-mail has been scanned by Verizon Managed Email Content Service, > using Skeptic(tm) technology powered by MessageLabs. For more information > on Verizon's Managed Email Content Service, visit > http://www.verizonbusiness.com. > ______________________________________________________________________ > _______________________________________________ > Histonet mailing list > Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu > http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet > _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet