Researchers say the instrument

Researchers say the instrument
Typically, pathologists have needed separate tissue slices for each protein they want to examine, making it impossible to see how molecules interact within individual cells. The new process is fast and automated — enabling analysis of up to 180 tumors from different patients in one hour — and promises more information than is available today to help therapy development and direct treatment.
Researchers say the instrument, which uses multispectral imaging, can detect how many of the cells in a sample of breast cancer display what quantity of any of four different receptors - progesterone receptor (PR), estrogen receptor (ER), HER1 receptors and HER2 receptors. That might show, for example, that 25 percent of cells express both ER and PR, 50% either PR or ER, and 25 percent neither.
“This technology is designed to be used by pathologists to reveal new data that can help researchers develop targeted therapies, and physicians personalize treatment for individual patients,” said Clifford Hoyt, VP and CTO at CRi. He is presenting the results at this week’s AACR Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development meeting (Philadelphia, September 22-25).