Validation of tissue microarrays in oral epithelial dysplasia using a novel virtual-array technique

Malignant transformation risk in oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) is currently determined by histological assessment. The subjectivity of this approach has led to interest in identifying prognostic biomarkers. Tissue microarrays (TMA) can reduce the utilization of the finite resources of a pathological archive. However, the selectivity involved in TMA construction necessitates the need to ensure that individual cores are representative of the overall features of the donor specimen. We aimed to validate, for the first time, the use of the TMA technique in OED by using a novel virtual array technique.