Digital workflow solution for tissue macro-dissection in molecular pathology
This white paper addresses the benefits of digitizing and automating the tissue sample selection workflow in molecular pathology to support genomic tumor profiling in precision oncology.
The sensitivity and specificity of molecular diagnostic tests used to inform therapy selection in precision oncology depend on the quality of the tissue samples—in particular the sample’s amount and purity of tumor cell DNA and RNA, respectively.
After discussing the shortcomings of the current gold standard of manual annotation and tissue dissection, the benefits of emerging technologies are described that bridge the current gap between digital and computational histopathology and the genomic bioinformatics practice in characterizing the patient’s tumor to guide targeted therapies in oncology. In two case studies the practical implementation of the digital workflow is demonstrated in a collaborative effort of the technology provider Xyall and LabCorp, a major clinical service laboratory, and a collaboration of Xyall with diagnostic start-up company InnoSIGN.