Immunohistochemistry Assays Validation and Tissue Control

Course overview

In histopathology, IHC assays are used as diagnostic, prognostic or predictive tests and directly affect everyday management of patients in the clinical setting. They could also become a potential quick and cost effective replacement for the DNA sequencing based methods. Therefore, it is of critical importance that the IHC test is validated as specific for its target and of sufficient sensitivity. Hence, the importance of control tissues and the implementation of non IHC verification methods. The understanding and application of appropriate positive and negative control tissues is one of the most important yet misunderstood aspect of IHC. In this presentation, we review the 3 levels of IHC tests validation, we emphasize the importance of control tissues, and discuss the non IHC methods available for the verification of antibodies prior to usage in IHC.