Tissue Microarrays in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Reliability of Immunohistochemically-Determined Biomarkers

Our results demonstrated that biomarkers involved in clinical tumor classification (cell lineage markers) of NSCLC can be adequately assessed using 1 or 2 biopsy samples. However, the optimal number of cores required for biomarkers with functional properties varied from 1 to > 4 cores. The results indicate that the optimal number of biopsies required to compensate for potential biomarker heterogeneity should be determined individually for each biomarker used in clinical settings.