Improved histology from inadequately fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens.

The rapid turnaround time demanded of many surgical pathology laboratories often results in the paraffin embedding of biopsy specimens that are less than optimally fixed. Occasionally, the quality of the resulting hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained sections is inadequate to provide a diagnosis. A method is described herein that permits the preparation of histologic sections of excellent quality from suboptimally fixed paraffin-embedded tissue.