I work in a research histopathology core lab. We get frozen section requests from academic researchers who then are upset bc the morphology of the section is not what they expected. We explain to them that fixed tissue has better morphology than frozen but many of them are resistant to the idea of fixed sections because of the additional cost. To make things worse, they typically make their own cryoblocks, using a variety of “interesting” techniques. When we suggest alternatives, the reply is basically “my lab has always done it this way”.
I’ve been trying to get them to fixate on fixation by saying that, in clinical medicine, the final diagnosis is always based on the fixed tissue and frozens are only used for a quick initial impression where time is essential (like margins during surgery). I got challenged on this by a researcher who claims that frozens are perfectly acceptable for clinical diagnostics. I admit I’ve always worked in research- any truth to this researcher’s claim?