The case of the missing lung: how tissue identity is confirmed in histopathology

Abstract

This case describes a situation of mislabeling of specimen pots that led to a malignant diagnosis being attributed to the wrong patient's surgical resection. Short tandem repeat analysis was used to determine which specimen originated from the two patients involved. This report describes a not infrequent scenario for pathologists and how current genetic techniques can be used to resolve issues of patient/tissue identity.