[AlaskaAngel]

Hi Sandy,

I'm not sure there is a "standard practice" or rule yet for what labs do or don't do, but there should be and likely will be at some point. So I don't know how typical the rule they use at the facility where mine were. That facility keeps the tumor easily accessible for the first 5 years, and then it is transferred to a private company that has access to it for research purposes but anytime it is needed for me they could get it back.

I wanted mine. They said I could have either all blocks, or all slides, but not both. I chose the blocks, and they kept the slides.

Also, since my original biopsy was done in Alaska and my surgery was done at a major cancer center in Seattle, there is also a lonely chunk of me that is enshrined at my local hospital from that procedure. I left that one where it is.

A.A.

P.S. The facility said it "has kept blocks for as long as 30 years".