> CAP regulations state that paraffin blocks should be retained
> for 5 years.
> In a recent CAP Today, it was suggested that this time  be
> extended for
> either all blocks or tumor blocks because of the potential
> for new testing
> capabilites (for example her 2-neu) that might be developed.

In Austria blocks must be stored for at least ten years and blocks from
autopsies for 50 (!) years, but most institutions store them longer, eg. at
our institution we have (almost) all the blocks from 1946. c-erbB-2 testing
is requested almost every month on old (and sometimes very old) blocks. I
also remember a Non-Hodgkin lymphoma small-lymphocytic I diagnosed 3 or 4
years ago and in the files a "plasmocytic granuloma of the leg" was
diagnosed 1961. The blocks were found and we could prove the polyclonality
of the process (nowadays I'd call those "granulomata" fibrous pseudotumor).
And I remember a melanoma which metastasized to axillary LN's 18 years after
the resection.