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Academic and nonacademic laboratories perform equally on CIQC immunohistochemistry proficiency testing
Zhongchuan Will Chen1, Heather Neufeld, Maria A Copete
1Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Insights
Academic centers (ACs) and nonacademic centers (NACs) showed similar success in immunohistochemistry (IHC) quality assessments. Breast cancer marker testing significantly outperformed non-breast cancer marker testing, indicating improved quality assurance.
Area of Science:
- Pathology
- Laboratory Medicine
- Quality Assurance
Background:
- External quality assessment (EQA) is crucial for standardizing laboratory performance.
- The Canadian Immunohistochemistry Quality Control (CIQC) program provides EQA for immunohistochemistry (IHC).
- Comparing performance between academic centers (ACs) and nonacademic centers (NACs) can reveal systemic differences in IHC testing quality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate if academic centers (ACs) achieve higher success rates than nonacademic centers (NACs) in IHC EQA challenges.
- To identify factors influencing IHC performance, including center type and location.
- To assess the impact of annual case volume on IHC testing accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 9 CIQC challenges for breast cancer markers (BM) and non-breast cancer markers (NBM).
- Comparison of success rates between ACs and NACs, and by city size.
- Correlation of performance with annual IHC case volumes.
Main Results:
- No statistically significant difference in IHC EQA performance was found between ACs and NACs.
- Performance on BM tests was significantly better than on NBM tests (P < .0001).
- NBM tests exhibited approximately double the failure rate compared to BM tests.
Conclusions:
- Recent quality assurance initiatives for breast hormone IHC have demonstrably improved test quality.
- The findings suggest that focused quality improvement efforts can yield significant gains in specific IHC assays.
- Further investigation into factors affecting NBM performance may be warranted.
Objectives:
To test whether academic centers (ACs) are more successful than nonacademic centers (NACs) in immunohistochemistry (IHC) external quality assessment challenges in the Canadian Immunohistochemistry Quality Control (CIQC) program.
Methods:
Results of 9 CIQC challenges for breast cancer marker (BM) and various non-breast cancer marker (NBM) tests were examined. Success rates were compared between AC/NAC laboratories and those located in small or large cities. Performance was also correlated with annual IHC case volumes.
Results:
There was no statistically significant difference in performance in any of the comparisons. However, overall performance on BM was significantly better (P < .0001, t test) than on NBM tests regardless of AC/NAC nature or city size. The mean failure rate on NBM was approximately twice that of BM tests.
Conclusion:
Our results suggest that recent emphasis on breast hormone IHC quality assurance has led to improved test quality.
