Precision Medical Treatments Have A Quality Control Problem
The goal is to customize treatments for cancer and other diseases to a patient's own biology. But something as simple as failing to take care of tissue samples en route to the lab can derail that.
You might not suspect that the success of the emerging field of precision medicine depends heavily on the couriers who push carts down hospital halls.
But samples taken during surgery may end up in poor shape by the time they get to the pathology lab â and that has serious implications for patients as well as for scientists who want to use that material to develop personalized tests and treatments that are safer and more effective.
Consider the story of a test that's commonly used to choose the right treatment for breast cancer patients. About a decade ago, pathologists realized that the , which looks for a protein that promotes the growth of cancer cells, was . As a result, some women were getting the
