Previous methods for biobanking prostate tissue, following radical prostatectomy, generally involved random sampling. In order to increase efficiency, and enable a greater range of downstream applications, a more targeted method of sampling prostate tissue was developed. Here we use both magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and biopsy data to target specific areas of the organ for sampling. The method involves use of a previously published prostate slicing device which removes a 5 mm transverse slice from a predetermined region of the prostate, followed by the removal of 6 mm punch biopsies from predetermined areas of this slice. These samples can be stored frozen or fixed for biobanking purposes, or used fresh immediately with 70% confidence of tumor content, as compared with 10% confidence from the random sampling approach. This enables the use of all standard downstream techniques such as genomics, proteomics or histological work, but also work that requires fresh tissue such as live tissue imaging or ex vivo culture.
Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE. 2019 Oct 10*** epublish ***
Susan Heavey, Aiman Haider, Ashwin Sridhar, Hayley Pye, Greg Shaw, Alex Freeman, Hayley Whitaker
Molecular Diagnostics and Therapeutics Group, University College London; ., Research Department of Pathology, University College London., Department of Uro-Oncology, UCLH NHS Foundation Trust., Molecular Diagnostics and Therapeutics Group, University College London.