Potential use of immunohistochemistry for diagnosis precision in historic paraffin blocks

Abstract

Authors present an autopsy case report where the immunohistochemical examination of tissues archived as paraffin blocks for more than 60 years enabled to identify the most probable primary origin of disseminated poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. The potential issues caused by so called antigen decay and limitations of immunohistochemistry in archive material are discussed.

Keywords

• Antigen decay
• archive tissue
• autopsy
• immunohistochemistry
• paraffin block