Histopathology (commonly known as ‘biopsy’) is the gold standard in cancer diagnosis and now frequently used to identify the best treatment regime using genetic analysis. It seems that 1 in 5 samples are of poor quality and cannot be used for genetic analysis. This was particularly true for samples coming from centres far away from specialised centres where the level of expertise tends to be lower.

Shoddy biopsies deny cancer patients a shot at personalized treatment

A huge trial of personalized cancer medicine has run into an unexpected roadblock: Many of the tumor samples aren’t robust enough to be put through genetic analysis.