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Updated: Jan 17, 2026
High-throughput Physical Mapping of Chromosomes using Automated in situ Hybridization
Published on: June 28, 2012
Automation of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) leading to cost savings and consistent high-quality results
Grace J Kwon1, Aaron Blackley1, Kathryn Perkinson1
1Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Aims:
Despite continually improving guidelines, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) testing for breast and gastro-oesophageal carcinoma continues to be a technical challenge in clinical laboratories. Manual HER2 fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) testing is labour-intensive and prone to inter-run and interoperator variability. We aimed to adopt and validate a Leica BOND-III automated staining platform for HER2 FISH testing.
Methods:
We recently validated the Leica BOND-III automated staining platform for HER2 FISH testing and compared it to our previous manual FISH (Agilent HER2 IQFISH pharmDx) methodology using 77 breast cancer cases and 8 gastric cancer cases.
Results:
Using the automated Leica BOND-III automated staining platform, we achieved 0.95 sensitivity and 0.97 specificity in HER2 FISH testing for breast cancer cases and 1.0 sensitivity and specificity for gastric carcinoma cases. There was a 98% concordance rate between results of automated testing versus our previous manual method. The automated staining platform decreased technical hands-on time significantly while also reducing overall supply costs for the laboratory.
Conclusions:
We were able to implement and validate the automated Leica BOND-III staining platform seamlessly into a complex laboratory for HER2 FISH testing that has overall significantly decreased hands-on time by technologists and supply costs. Automated Leica BOND-III HER2 FISH staining results were highly concordant with our previous manual FISH method in both breast cancer and gastric cancer cases.
