| The molecular revolution is in full force with advanced tissue diagnostics driving the
development of novel technologies for medicine and research. With surgical tissues in the clinic
processed almost universally as formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE), it’s relevant to assess
this standard of care (SOC) as technologies continue to advance. As such, we found it necessary
to compare DNA extracted from FFPE and cryopreserved tissues (CRYO) as both are indefinite
storage methods. We hypothesized that CRYO samples would be superior to FFPE samples. We
tested our hypothesis from a pan-cancer panel with matched FFPE/CRYO pairs (n=38). After
purity assessments, results show DNA yield from CRYO having a 4.2-fold increase/mg of tissue
(p-value <0.001). Also, CRYO a 9-fold increase in DNA fragments length >40,000 bp (p-value
<0.0001). By these common quality metrics, DNA extracted from CRYO is superior to FFPE as
needed for novel molecular technologies.
Keywords: Biospecimen management, cryopreserved tissue, FFPE, personalized medicine,
molecular diagnostics |