Virchow Companion Specimens

Immediately following the biopsy, if the Crow’s Nest is used, a Virchow Companion Specimen is generated and the 13-digit serial number is keyed in to virchowvault.com, creating a digital record of the VCS.  The physical VCS is sent to the Virchow Vault in a prepaid, pre-addressed VaultBox, then accessioned by Virchow Medical, and stored. Then, following a cancer-positive pathology report, the VCS is available anytime thereafter when the patient’s oncologist would like to order a test. You no longer have to rely on the tissue in the path lab. Now you have an alternative for ordering NGS, or simple gene assays: Just log in to the Virchow Vault, select your patient’s specimen, and select the test you want to order. 

We’ve all heard of Companion Diagnostics.
But what are Companion Specimens?

If the only thing that comes from your patient’s core needle biopsies is solid tissue in formalin, your patients are missing a key enabler of targeted therapy: Virchow Companion Specimens (VCSs). VCSs are created solely from the dislodged tumor cells that would have been wasted with the used biopsy needle. It takes nothing from the tissue core, and nothing from the patient. It’s a brilliant way to make more genetic testing material available.  And because the source is what would have been medical waste, it is making something from nothing.