National External Quality Assurance Scheme – Immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization: Autumn Meeting, London, UK.
Dr Ian Milton presented HistoCyte’s work on the Progesterone Receptor Analyte ControlDR. Expanding our Dynamic Range of controls, the Progesterone Receptor cell lines were developed to have cells of varying performance in order to enable the end user to have confidence in their assay results. Ian expanded on the use of anti-progesterone receptor antibodies, their performance and the general use of controls, as well the development of this product. He also briefly discussed other Dynamic Range products and what is in the product development pipeline.
The presentation can be found here.
The talk was well received with active discussion afterward regarding several subjects. These included the use of cells in combination with in-house tissue as part of the NEQAS submissions for the scheme and how top marks are achievable using them in combination, whereas cells alone (properly working) will only give you 3/5.
NEQAS need to see the quality of the tissue produced by the participating laboratory and how it performs immunohistochemically. There were further questions around cells for use in cytology, something HistoCyte are aware of as a utility but as yet do not know the needs of the wider market.