Evaluation of the tissue microarray technique for immunohistochemical analysis in rectal cancer.
BACKGROUND: Immunohistochemical staining for tumor-associated proteins is widely used for the identification of novel prognostic markers. Recently, a tissue-conserving, high-throughput technique, tissue microarray, has been introduced. This technique uses 0.6-mm tissue core biopsy specimens, 500 to 1000 of which are brought into a new paraffin array block, which can be sectioned up to 100 times. M