title: A quick method to extract DNA from paraffin-embedded tissues.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The amplification power of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique has had great impact in molecular analysis, and DNA extraction is a common requirement in retrospective studies utilizing PCR as a tool. Conventional methods used in deparaffinization, harvesting and purification of DNA from paraffin-embedded tissue are time consuming and cause a significant loss in the yield of DNA.
  
  
  METHODS
  We utilized heating-melting-cooling removal of paraffin, digestion of the sample with proteinase K and purification of the extracted DNA by a microconcentrator. The products, after PCR amplification of the p53 gene exon 8, were used to make a comparison between our method and the conventional xylene-phenol-choloform method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The amplified products from our method were superior to that of the conventional method.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The method we propose has a better recovery of DNA and is more time efficient.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Tsang
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D010232:Paraffin; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016610:Tissue Embedding
chemical_list: D010232:Paraffin; D004247:DNA