Recognizing the genetic heterogeneity of tumors, researchers are developing new biopsy tools that aim to expand the spatial diversity of sample collection, while simultaneously lessening the invasiveness of the biopsy procedure. These new techniques, if adopted into surgical practice, have the potential to alter laboratory workflow and pathological analysis not only in terms of the quantity of samples retrieved and sent for analysis but also in terms of the progressively more complex nature of interpreting the increasingly sensitive molecular findings in a clinically applicable manner. Keri Donaldson, M.D., medical director of molecular diagnostics at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (Hershey, Pa.) explains to DTET that these technologies are designed to decrease sample selection error, increase the area of an organ surveyed, and increase the sensitivity of the biopsy procedure, but may pose a challenge for clinicians to apply the increasingly complex, mutifocal data to influence treatment decisions. Among the emerging technologies that rely upon an increased number of microsamples are microgrippers developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The microgrippers are submillimeter, untethered tools that retrieve tissue samples, initially from the gastrointestinal tract. The researchers say that they represent a statistically more efficient means to screen large-area organs’ […]