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Never place tissue in formalin or
other preservatives.
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Do not collect tissue using
heparin.
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Do not place any tissue in
heparinized containers, or tubes with heparin solution
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Do not use heparin when collecting
CT- or ultrasound-guided aspirates, core biopsies, FNA specimens
or bone marrow.
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Do not put core biopsies in OCT
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Tissue blocks cannot be used to
manufacture vaccine.
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Except for peripheral blood, all
specimens should be kept cold (either on 'wet' or dry ice) to
prevent RNA degradation.
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If transporting a specimen on 'wet'
ice, cover fresh tissue with normal saline to reduce RNA
degradation.
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Freshly excised lymph nodes (LN)
are the preferred tissue. Tissue should be immediately
placed in an appropriate container (tight screw top) of normal
saline and shipped on 'wet' ice.
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Amount of LN tissue required to
manufacture vaccine:
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minimum dimension of ~ 0.3 cm
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2-3 smaller specimens are
better than one large sample, but avoid creating 'diced'
specimens.
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Excisional lymph nodes should
be less than or equal to 1.0 gram.
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Collect core biopsies using an 1-14
gauge needle to yield a core biopsy ~0.2 cm in diameter by at
least 1 cm in length.
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Core biopsy snap freezing must
occur immediately to freeze the tissue solid to prevent RNA
degradation.
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Immediately place in a
container and placing on dry ice until frozen solid (~ 10
minutes), or
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Immediately place in liquid
nitrogen for ~ 20 seconds or, in ultra low temperature freezer
(-80 C) for ~ 10 minutes.
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Fine Needle aspirates:
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provide 2-3 aspirates (.1 - .2
cc each) in separate containers.
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number aspirates in order of
collection.
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bloody aspirates are unlikely
to yield adequate RNA.
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Bone marrow and other core
biopsies
|
must be immediately snap frozen
at the bedside to prevent RNA degradation.
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bone marrow must be at least
30% involved with lymphoma.
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Peripheral blood must display an
absolute lymphocyte count of 5 x 106 cells/mL by manual
differential. 7-10 mL of blood is needed, collected in EDTA tubes
(purple tops).
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