Diagnostic tests, based on nucleic acids extracts from formalin fixed and paraffin embedded tissues (FFPE) now becoming increasingly common due the introduction of biological agents for cancer therapy. Unfortunately, the FFPE tissues are heterogeneous in terms of processing and type of tissue and this has an impact on downstream molecular techniques, especially RNA based .The present review deals with most of the variables connected to the extraction of nucleic acids from formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissues, ranging from the tissue processing to the quality control of extracts.
The most recent peer reviewed publications (mostly published in the past 5 years) and information provided by company web sites have been analysed to compile this review.
