Tissue microarray technology: principles, pitfalls and perspectives--lessons learned from hematological malignancies.

Detection, validation and incorporation into clinical use of new diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic molecular targets in modern medical science should be time- and cost-efficient. Here, we discuss the principles, advantages, disadvantages and possible pitfalls of tissue microarray (TMA) technology, a powerful tool for high throughput large-scale morphological in situ analysis of molecular targets. Based on recent observations from molecular profiling of hematological malignancies, we review potential TMA applications assessing molecular targets in large collectives of tissue specimens.