pubmed:abstractText |
Therapeutic approaches to lung cancer are evolving, with personalized therapy, based on "molecular analysis" of tumors being developed. Given that approximately 90% of patients will not undergo surgery for their disease, an ability to apply these tests to small samples obtained at the time of initial pathological diagnosis is desirable. Studies in this area have produced variable results, and the minimum area of tumor tissue required for analysis has not been defined. Furthermore, such assays have not been widely applied to cytology specimens, which may be the only source of diagnostic material in many cases.
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