Tissue sampling and digital histologic imaging for the National Lung Screening Trial.

e12032 Background: Tissue samples from tumors diagnosed in patients enrolled in the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) have been gathered from widely dispersed geographical locations for histological assessment and selection of tumor rich regions by an innovative digital microscopy protocol. This protocol was designed to take advantage of multi-institutional centers of expertise to create tissue microarrays and molecular extracts that will be available for testing to NLST-approved investigators. Methods: Blocks containing primary tumor, metastasis, lymph node and/or normal lung tissue were forwarded to the UCLA Tissue Array Core Facility. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained histological sections (4-5 microns) from these blocks were forwarded to the University of Colorado Denver, where they were imaged using an Aperio Scanscope, creating a high resolution scan of the whole slide. The digital image of the slide was then manually annotated and printed onto transparency film at the actual size of the matching don...