High to everyone interested in multi-tissue blocks / tissue arrays / 
multiblocks !
we do not recommend the Beecher - System. Many people 
who have bought this machine (at least I know) have great 
difficulties with it. Waste of time and loss of tissue due to lack of 
adhesion is a very common problem. Zytomed (www.zytomed.de) offers a 
multiblock system which allows to bring up to 96 tissues in one 
multiblock. The system is different from the beecher system, i.e. you 
punsh your tissue cores of the interested area of your archival 
block by yourself  (1.5 mm in diameter) and send them to zytomed. All 
you need in included in the kit you have to buy from zytomed (partner 
of zymed). The multiblock you receive can be cut like any standard 
paraffin block, you need no special equipement. Depending on the 
thickness of the tissue cores brought into the multiblock, up to 150 
slides can be achieved on a routine microtome. Therefore, the 
technique is especially interesting for studying several markers on 
the same tissues. No tape system !
We have used this multiblock system in a nationwide immuno-trial this 
spring in Germany. We sent out 6 slides of a multiblock containing 30 
tissue cores to 172 laboratories (6x30x172 =approx. 31.000 cores). 
They were sent back to us after staining for ER, MIB1, Keratin, 
...(i.e. including heat retrieval methods). Less than 0.4% of the 
31000 cores were lost due to adhesion problems (in 172 different 
laboratories !!!), which is a very low number that corresponds well 
to loss on standard slides (or even below).  The multiblock system is 
also appropriate for In-Situ-hybridization, we have investigated more 
than 2000 cases up to now in 34 multiblocks with no real problems. 

For starting with the multiblock system, we recommend blocks with 60 
tissue cores (plus one core for orientation). This reduces the 
cutting area and makes the whole process for you and your staff 
easier. But the greatest difference is the storeability of the 
punshed tissue cores ! Once you are punshing your archival blocks- 
just do it ten times per paraffin block and you can build up your own 
tissue-core-archive ! Think of all the possibilities you will have in 
future studies: for example, 420 tumors are brought  into 7 
multiblocks. After screening for certain markers, your results may 
recommend investigating just 120 of these tumors in detail  - now you 
can construct two new multiblocks very fast and easy including only 
the cases of special interest by using your tissue-core-archive ! And 
if you are interested in the DNA, just extract it from one of the 
stored tissue cores after you have screened the cases for the most 
interesting ones ! 

For further information just contact me (or www.zytomed.de)
With best regards
Reinhard von Wasielewski, Hannover, Germany
Reinhard von Wasielewski, MD