Fewer repeat biopsies. Faster answers. More certainty. The CytoPod is built to make sure every cell captured is a cell analyzed.
It’s Better for the Patient
Conventional cell block processing can lose up to 33% of cellular material through decantation, cassette leakage, or tissue loss during microtomy facing. For a patient waiting on a diagnosis, that’s not just a processing inefficiency. It’s a delayed treatment path, or a repeat procedure they shouldn’t have to go through.
- Fewer Repeat Biopsies. Because the CytoPod preserves almost the entire specimen, one aspiration is far more likely to yield enough material for diagnosis. Especially for delicate or paucicellular samples where every cell matters.
- Faster Answers. Fewer QNS results mean fewer delays waiting on a repeat sample, so patients and their care teams get a diagnosis and a treatment path sooner.
- Access to the Right Trial. For patients whose only realistic treatment path runs through a biomarker-driven or rare-disease trial, a preserved specimen means their eligibility isn’t lost to a paucicellular result. The CytoPod helps keep them in the study and on track for the right therapy.
“The CytoPod doesn't just recover cells. It recovers the opportunity for a patient to stay in a trial.”
One Sample, No Guesswork
Conventional cell blocks disperse cells throughout the block, so a technician sectioning the block is working blind, cutting through diagnostic material without knowing it’s there, or not cutting deep enough to reach it. The CytoPod concentrates cellular material into one predictable, central location so that techs know exactly where the cells are and how far to cut.
Superior yield. Standardized results.
Many labs treat cell blocks as a companion tool to biopsy rather than a standalone diagnostic, because conventional methods are difficult to prepare consistently and difficult to visualize reliably. The CytoPod is designed to close that gap by bridging cytology and surgical pathology standards to provide the high-density, reproducible cellular yield needed for diagnosis, IHC, and molecular testing.
| Performance Metric | Conventional Cell Block | Lumea CytoPod | Why This Matters |
| Observed cell loss | ~33% loss* | ~1.7–2% loss* | Every percentage point lost is material that can’t go toward diagnosis, biomarker testing, or trial eligibility. |
| Sections with diagnostic value | <15% of sections* | >90% of sections* | More usable sections from the same aspiration means fewer QNS calls and fewer patients sent back for a repeat procedure. |
| Avg. sections per block | 119 sections* | 176 sections* | More sections per block means more room for the full IHC and molecular workup a companion diagnostic requires. |
Data from Pop et al., “A new method for preparing cell blocks from paucicellular aspirates” (n=16 clinical sample comparison).
It’s Better for Trial Enrollment
For patients enrolled in biomarker-driven or rare-disease trials, specimen loss during processing isn’t just a lab metric. It can mean a failed enrollment criterion or an unnecessary repeat biopsy. The CytoPod is a precision-engineered filtration and sectionable matrix system: a specialized filter captures cells in a concentrated layer via vacuum filtration, then the entire assembly is embedded and sectioned as one unit, so diagnostic material stays undisturbed from filtration to slide.
Every Cell Counts
The Lumea CytoPod is built to make sure a paucicellular sample is a starting point, not a dead end. Are you ready to level up patient care in cytology?
