Flow cytometry of human solid tumours: clinical and research applications

The measurement of DNA content of nuclei isolated from solid human neoplasms was one of the first large-scale applications of flow cytometry. Due to the development of directly labelled monoclonal antibodies mainly directed against cell-surface-associated proteins expressed by haematopoetic or lymphoid cells, flow cytometry rapidly evolved to an indispensable clinical technique. However, progress in multiparameter flow cytometry of solid tumours lagged behind.Recent technical improvements in preparing and staining cell suspensions obtained from solid tumours allows the simultaneous measurement of high-resolution DNA content and tumour-associated protein expression of fresh, frozen and even paraffin-embedded clinical samples. These new developments might give an impulse to clinical multiparameter flow cytometry of human solid neoplasms.