For Physicians

Molecular Pathology

Molecular Pathology at NYU, directed by Ruliang Xu, M.D., Ph.D., is an emergent and growing service area focused on the use of nucleic acid-based techniques such as in-situ hybridization (ISH), reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, and nucleic acid microarrays. Spanning both the anatomic and clinical disciplines, state-of-the-art molecular pathology tests increase the specificity of disease diagnoses for identification and classification, they clarify the prognosis and predictions for the potential behavior of disease, and they determine the best therapeutic approaches and responses. Molecular pathology is becoming increasingly significant for the prediction of response to chemotherapy and radiation, the detection of residual disease and infectious disease, and for pre- and post-transplantation monitoring as well.

The NYU Department of Pathology has added a number of tests to its portfolio and has identified several others on the basis of clinical need to develop a broad scope of molecular pathology testing. We recently hired Naima Ismaili, Ph.D., who specializes in molecular diagnostics to aid in assay development and validation. With real-time PCR for quantitative RNA and mutational analysis, our current molecular pathology service volume is at over one thousand cases per year already.

Services, sequencing, and tests currently offered include T-cell and B-cell gene rearrangements, Bcl-1 and Bcl-2, JAK2 mutational analysis for myeloproliferative disease, Bcr-Abl for chronic myelogenous leukemia, 1p19q LOH for gliomas, CML BCR/ABL and ALL BCR/ABL, AML (FLT-3), t(8;21), t(15;17), and HTLV-1, HHV-8, EBV. We offer FLT3 mutational analysis and we are in the final stages of developing PML-RARA/t(15;17), AML1-ETO/t(8;21), and CBFb-MYH11/inv16 Fusion Transcripts for acute myeloid leukemia. We are also developing FIP1L1-PDGFR and KIT Mutation in Mast Cell Disease, Chimerism Analysis for transplant monitoring, and MLH1 Methylation for myelodysplastic syndrome. Other tests in development are microsatellite instability, RAS mutational analysis (sequencing) for pancreatic cancer, EGFR mutational analysis (sequencing) for multiple cancers, 18q LOH (PCR) for colon cancer, NPM/ALK/t (2;5) for anaplastic large cell lymphoma, and C-myc t(8;14) for Burkitt's lymphoma.

Turnaround Time
By specific arrangement, depending on type of test.

Safety: Universal precautions are followed.

Pathologists