Tissue micro array; establishing a cost-effective tool for cancer biomarker research in Sri Lanka

Tissue micro array is a cost effective tool for cancer biomarker discovery and for the validation and external quality control in immunohistochemistry. It has not been utilized in Sri Lanka before, although widely used in cancer research centres world over. Scarcity of cancer biomarker research in Sri Lanka is partly due to the unaffordable cost of laboratory consumables including antibodies. TMA is produced using tissue cores from multiple tissue blocks. It reduces the cost and improves the consistency in immunostaining and adds validity to the assessment. In this brief report, we describe the technique of producing TMA and technical issues faced and how we could overcome them.