title: Validation of tissue microarray technology in malignant pleural mesothelioma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Tissue microarray (TMA) technology has been utilised for assessment of cancers including malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Given the intralesional heterogeneity of MPM, it is questionable if TMAs can adequately represent MPMs. We here investigate the validity of TMAs for MPM.
  
  
  METHODS
  TMAs were constructed from at least five cores for each of 80 archival tumours processed by two centres between 1994 and 2009. The percentage of cases correctly subtyped on TMAs compared with whole sections, in relation to the number of cores analysed, was calculated. Immunohistochemical labelling for calretinin and D2-40 was performed on TMAs and whole sections. To evaluate the validity of quantitative immunohistochemistry, percentages of positive cells were recorded and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five cores were assessable for 91% of patients. Four cores were sufficient to reach concordance with the whole-section result in 98% of cases for calretinin and 99% for D2-40. The correlation of the quantitative scores between the whole section and TMA cores was statistically significant (D2-40, rho = 0.84, p < 2.2e-16; calretinin, rho = 0.65, p = 7.9e-11). Neither the origin nor age of the blocks affected the results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  If a minimum of four cores is used, TMA is an appropriate method for immunohistochemistry in MPM.
authors.affiliation: Asbestos Diseases Research Institute, Bernie Banton Centre, Concord, Australia.
authors.forename: Steven C H
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Nicola J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Clarke
authors.forename: Janette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vardy
authors.forename: Nico
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van Zandwijk
authors.forename: Glen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: Juliet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Burn
authors.forename: Brian C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: McCaughan
authors.forename: Douglas W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klebe
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000378:metabolism; D058846:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D064032:Calbindin 2; D006801:Humans; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D010997:Pleural Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D064030:S100 Calcium Binding Protein G / Q000378:metabolism; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D058846:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C576764:CALB2 protein, human; D064032:Calbindin 2; D064030:S100 Calcium Binding Protein G; C500987:monoclonal antibody D2-40