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Background For patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), targeted therapies are becoming part of the standard treatment. It is of question which information the clinicians provide on test requests and how the laboratories adapt test conclusions to this knowledge and regulations. Methods This study consisted of two components; 1) checking the presence of pre-defined elements (administrative and key for therapy-choice) on completed requests and corresponding reports in Belgian laboratories, both for tissue- and liquid biopsy (LB)-testing and b) opinion analysis from Belgian pathologists/molecular biologists and clinicians during national pathology/oncology meetings. Results Data from 4 out of 6 Belgian laboratories with ISO-accreditation for LB-testing were analyzed, of which 75% were university hospitals. On the scored requests (N = 4), 12 out of 19 ISO-required elements were present for tissue and 11 for LB-testing. Especially relevant patient history, such as line of therapy (for LB), tumor histology and the reason for testing were lacking. Similarly, 11 and 9 out of 18 elements were present in the reports (N = 4) for tissue and LB, respectively. Elements that pathologists/molecular biologists (N = 18) were missing on the request were the initial activating mutation, previous therapies, a clinical question and testing-related information. For reporting, an item considered important by both groups is the clinical interpretation of the test result. In addition, clinicians (N = 28) indicated that they also wish to read the percentage of neoplastic cells. Conclusions Communication flows between the laboratory and the clinician, together with possible pitfalls were identified. Based on the study results, templates for complete requesting and reporting were proposed.

Introduction The study was performed to compare and analyze the inter-departmental variability in the request of rarely requested laboratory tests in primary care, as opposed to other more common and highly requested tests. Materials and methods Data from production statistics for the year 2012 from 76 Spanish laboratories was used. The number of antinuclear antibodies, antistreptolysin O, creatinine, cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies, deaminated peptide gliadine IgA antibodies, glucose, protein electrophoresis, rheumatoid factor, transglutaminase IgA antibodies, urinalysis and uric acid tests requested was collected. The number of test requests per 1000 inhabitants was calculated. In order to explore the variability the coefficient of quartile dispersion was calculated. Results The smallest variation was seen for creatinine, glucose, uric acid and urinalysis; the most requested tests. The tests that were least requested showed the greatest variability. Conclusion Our study shows through a very simplified approach, in a population close to twenty million inhabitants, how in primary care, the variability in the request of laboratory tests is inversely proportional to the request rate.

Introduction: We aimed to determine the number of repeated cholesterol (RC) tests and the ratio of unnecessary-repeated cholesterol (URC) tests among patients admitted to Pamukkale University Hospital (Denizli, Turkey) and provide solutions to avoid URC testing. Materials and methods: Total cholesterol (T-cholesterol) tests (N=86,817) between June 2014 and May 2015 were evaluated. The tests performed more than once per patient were determined as RC test (N=28,811). RC test with an interval shorter than 4 weeks were determined as URC test (N=3968) according to the shortest retest interval stated in ACC/AHA blood cholesterol guideline. RC testing included internal medicine, surgery and paediatric outpatients and inpatients. Reference change value (RCV) of total cholesterol was calculated. Results: The 33.1% of the T-cholesterol tests were RC tests (N=28,811), 13.7% of them were URC tests (N=3968). Our RCV value was 25%. The percentage change between consecutive tests was less than RCV in 86.1% (N=3418) of URC tests. URC tests were performed more frequently in patients with desirable total cholesterol value (P