[Cytological material for molecular pathology].

Personalized therapy concepts in which the active agent is adapted to genetic alterations in the tumor of the patient, have in recent years led to a paradigm shift in oncology. A comprehensive molecular diagnostic tumor characterization is therefore essential before initiating therapy in order to select the optimal therapy for the patient. The continuously increasing number of genetic alterations which can be treated and known resistance mechanisms together with limited availability of test material represents a completely new challenge for molecular diagnostics. The possibility of being able to determine mutations, translocations and changes in the number of copies not only from paraffin-embedded tumor tissue but also from cytological material and even circulating tumor DNA, substantially extends the diagnostic options.