How do I collect an FNA sample?

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ImpriMed steps for FNA collection

  1. Disinfect the skin with alcohol (70%) at the planned needle puncture site.
  2. Insert a 20-gauge needle (without syringe) into an enlarged lymph node and perform 15 - 20 aspirations using an aggressive “woodpecker style” technique.  Stop aspirating when the aspirate appears in the hub of the needle.
  3. Attach the needle to a 5 - 10 mL syringe (with at least 1 ml of air). Tilt the collection tube upside down and inject the aspirated material directly into the medium.
  4. Allow a small amount of fluid (~1/4 mL) to flush back into the needle, then gently reinject into a fluid medium to flush out the needle.
  5. Repeat the procedure multiple times to ensure all the aspirate is transferred into the media tube.  

We need at least 10 million cells to conduct the drug response predictions, so if you need to aspirate from other affected nodes please do so. There are no additional costs for additional nodes or tubes. Typically, 2 FNA tubes of adequate cellularity are required to reach 10 million cells.  

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Important Note:

If a blood vessel was lacerated during the procedure and the collection tube becomes significantly bloody, please select a different biopsy site and repeat the procedure.  Store any FNA tubes in the fridge immediately after the biopsy. DO NOT freeze samples or the transport media.We also accept fresh lymph node tissue and spleen samples (within 24 hours of collection).

Other Questions

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What is the simulated dosing for a certain drug? MTD(maximum tolerated dosing) or metronomic?

Our models don't differentiate between different types of dosing, so they can be viewed as outcomes for standard clinical practice. For instance, if MTD is more common in practice, the models may more closely reflect MTD.

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How long until I get my ImpriMed report?

Our flow cytometry, PARR, and Immunoprofile reports are emailed to you 3-4 days after receipt of your patient’s sample(s) at our lab. The Personalized Prediction Profile reports are emailed to you 6-7 days after receipt of your patient’s sample(s) at our lab.

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Is there any reason to believe that submitting another sample to you would provide any additional information or possible changes in treatment protocols now that we are almost 4 months into the treatment plan?

We would suggest you submit another FNA and blood samples to us WHEN the patient's lymphoma relapses. Relapse of lymphoma means that the cancer develops a resistance to certain chemo drugs in use. When this happens, the relapsed cancer cells are usually different from the ones investigated in the naive status, which led to different drug response predictions to the tested drugs. Therefore, it would be better to get new tumor samples and find out what are the new preferred drugs and which of the used drugs still remain effective or became resistant for the relapsed lymphoma. However, the best scenario is to maintain clinical remission for as long a period of time so that you don’t have to order another service from us! If a second service is needed, we offer a 50% discount for returning patients.

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For the blood tube submission– Do you request that on every patient, even if they don't have a leukemic component? And what type of blood tube do you request we send the sample in?

We require at least 2 mL of whole blood in an EDTA-treated tube.

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Can a doctor be associated with more than one hospital?

Yes, all account users can be associated with multiple hospitals. Please email support@imprimedicine.com if you want to add hospitals or clinics to your account.

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