Over the past few decades, accumulated genetic data has been shown to be closely related to tumor diagnosis and prognosis, thereby transferring cancer cytogenetics from research laboratories to studies with clinical applications. Recognizing the association between specific cytogenetic abnormalities and certain morphological and clinical features has implications for disease diagnosis, classification, treatment, and personalized medicine. FISH can be used to map loci on specific chromosomes, detect numerical and structural chromosomal abnormalities, and reveal cryptic abnormalities. It overcomes many of the disadvantages of karyotyping, such as low sample cell yield, low mitotic index, and poor metaphase quality. Currently, FISH is used as an indispensable tool for detecting structural rearrangements such as translocations, inversions, insertions, and microdeletions, identifying marker chromosomes, and delineating chromosomal breakpoints. Therefore, FISH combines traditional cytogenetic and molecular techniques to greatly improve the efficiency and accuracy of karyotyping and can differentiate malignant cells while maintaining cellular structure. Further, the lack of metaphase spread for cytogenetic preparations can be compensated for by the use of interphase cytogenetics using specific probes, such as commercially available or homemade ones.
Fig 1. Examples of karyotypes of normal variants and chromosomal abnormalities in some leukemias. (Wan T S K, et al. 2014)
FISH Services of Tumorcytogenetic
The application of FISH technology in cancer cytogenetic research is the most convenient and informative technique for identifying chromosomal abnormalities in a particular study. Innovative technological advances in the field of cancer cytogenetics have greatly enhanced the detection of chromosomal alterations and advanced the research and diagnostic potential of chromosomal studies in malignant tumors. Single-cell karyotyping remains the easiest way to understand the relationship between clonal evolution and disease progression, but the use of advanced FISH techniques can identify chromosomal alterations that cannot be resolved by karyotyping. Molecular cytogenetic tumor diagnosis and research is based on primary samples from solid tumors (surgical or fluid) or leukemia (blood or bone marrow). There are of course some lymphomas, and the sample may come from surgery, fluid accumulation, or bone marrow aspiration of lymphoma tissue. Our laboratory has established well-established analytical protocols for the use of blood, bone marrow, smear or fluid samples in cancer cytogenetics studies. Our analytical platforms have short-term cell culture capabilities and can handle analysis of fresh and archived samples. Based on the application of a wide range of commercial probes and various types of custom probes, our technology platform provides customers with one-stop outsourced analytical testing services. And we also provide comprehensive data interpretation based on morphology, karyotyping, FISH and gene expression analysis.
Technology Features
Chromosomal diagnostic knowledge and drug target information obtained by FISH have important implications for treatment decisions.
FISH can be used for pre-sequencing diagnosis or post-sequencing verification. It has a more intuitive histological background analysis than sequencing, enabling co-localization analysis of gene transcripts and proteins.
For some situations where whole-genome analysis is not required, FISH-specific chromosomal diagnosis has time and cost advantages.
Our FISH technology platform offers a variety of technical services to identify or select malignant cells by morphology, immunophenotyping or plasma cell sorting before FISH probes yield reliable results. The aim is to help co-researchers gain a more comprehensive view.
Fig 2. An example of interphase FISH applied to tumor cytogenetic analysis. (Wan T S K, et al. 2014)
Creative Bioarray provides FISH-based tumor cytogenetic analysis testing services to facilitate the genetic analysis of cancer on clinical samples of cancer such as blood, bone marrow, smear or fluid. Our FISH technology services deploy commercial or custom probes to meet the genetic analysis needs of your research. If you are interested in our service, please contact us for cooperation. We look forward to cooperating with you in the near future.
Reference
- Wan T S K. Cancer cytogenetics: methodology revisited[J]. Annals of laboratory medicine, 2014, 34(6): 413-425.
