Table 2 Summary of results from participating laboratories for the UK National External Quality Assessment Scheme (NEQAS) pilot HER2 fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) scheme.

	Results	Appropriate	Acceptable	Inappropriate	Misdiagnosis
SK‐BR‐3
Run 1	22 (9)	10	8	4	0
Run 2	27 (5)	9	10	8	0
Run 3	29 (2)	16	3	10 (1NR)	1
Total	78 (16)	35	21	20	1
MDA‐MB‐453
Run 1	22 (9)	13	3	6	2* (<1.8–2.0)
Run 2	27 (5)	17	3	7	6
Run 3	29 (2)	15	6	8	3
Total	78 (16)	45	12	21	11
BT20/MDA‐MB‐175*
Run 1	22 (9)	16	2	4	1
Run 2	27 (5)	14	5	8	0
Run 3	29 (2)	10	10	9 (3 NR)	0
Total	78 (16)	40	17	21	1
MDA‐MB‐231
Run 1	22 (9)	20	2	0	0
Run 2	27 (5)	25	1	1	0
Run 3	29 (2)	20	4	5 (2 NR)	0
Total	78 (16)	65	7	6	0

Distribution of results from participating laboratories over three runs during 2004/05 as assessed by results from reference laboratories.

Results  =  number of participating laboratories submitting results. Of participating laboratories, 22 participated in run 1, 25 in run 2 and 29 in run 3; figures in brackets represent those participating laboratories which did not submit results for that run (e.g. in run 1, 22 laboratories submitted results and 9 did not).

Results were scored as either “appropriate” (falling within the range identified by the reference laboratories), “acceptable” (falling within 10% of the range identified by the reference laboratories), “inappropriate” (falling outside the range ±10% identified by reference laboratories but not resulting in a misdiagnosis), or “misdiagnosis” (falling outside the above range and resulting in a possible “misdiagnosis” of the case in question).

*BT20 was used in run 1 and MDA‐MB‐175 was used for runs 2 and 3.