Course Outline
Click on the links below to preview selected pages from this course.
- Importance of Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) Testing in Cancer Care
- Theoretical Knowledge Required for Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) Testing
- Chromosomes
- Centromeres
- Probes
- Centromere Probes
- Locus-Specific Probes
- Break-Apart or Translocation Probes
- Which of the following probe types are used to detect a translocation?
- Equipment used in FISH technology
- FISH methodology
- Tissue Preparation
- Common Methodologies
- Slide Preparation
- Pre-treatment Strategies
- Standard Pre-treatment
- Standard Protease Digestion
- Standard Denaturation
- Standard Probe Preparation and Hybridization
- Standard Post-Hybridization and Completion
- New Histologic-Based Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) Technique
- Differences in Pre-treatment
- Differences in Digestion
- Which of the following pre-treatment solutions are more harsh to the tissue?
- It is acceptable to use the digital reading on the water bath during the FISH assay.
- It is important to denature the tissue DNA and the probe DNA.
- What happens during the hybridization step of a FISH assay?
- Enumeration of FISH signals
- Assessing Slide Quality
- Control Slide
- Patient Slide
- HER2/neu Examples
- Reporting Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH)
- International Standing Committee on Cytogenetic Nomenclature (ISCN) Reporting
- A final interpretation of FISH results is required in the report.
- The following image is of a break apart probe for ALK translocation. Is the image depicting a normal or an abnormal sample?
- References
Additional Information
Level of instruction: Beginning to intermediate
Intended audience: Clinical laboratory histotechnologists, histotechnicians, and other medical laboratory personnel who have an interest in this subject matter. This course is also appropriate for histology and clinical laboratory science students, pathology residents, and practicing pathologists.
Author information: Kathryn R. Perkinson, BS, HTL(ASCP) has been the manager of the Molecular Pathology Department of Duke University Health System in Durham, North Carolina since 1998. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from North Carolina State University. Kathryn has over 25 years of experience in molecular biology in both the research and clinical healthcare fields at Duke University. The Molecular Pathology Department, under her leadership, has tripled in size over the past 15 years.
Reviewer information: Carla J. Shoffeitt, MSM, HT(ASCP) is the Manager of the Pathology Department of Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital of Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a Master of Science Degree in Healthcare Management as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Troy University, Troy, Alabama. She is certified as a Histotechnician and has 25 years of experience in the field of Histology.
Course description: This course will explore the theoretical concepts used in fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) testing. Commonly used FISH methodologies, necessary equipment, and the enumeration of FISH signals will also be discussed.
