Banking on Results ? Biobanks Maintain Sample Viability
Human biological material has been collected,
stored and used for a variety of purposes
almost since the dawn of modern medicine.
However, the combination of high-throughput
molecular genetic analysis and the explosion in
computing power makes possible for the first
time the mining of this physical medium for
data to link human health or disease to
molecular characteristics. Enter the Biobank
? a potentially vital resource for identifying
the causes and mechanisms of diseases,
both hereditary and environmental.
Cancer Banks, as the name suggests, are
collections of tissue and blood collected from
patients where cancer is a possible diagnosis.
Given that many research studies are aimed at
increasing our understanding of the molecular
mechanisms involved in tumour initiation,
metastatis, and response to treatment, the
cancer bank holds out the hope of accelerating
the development of more effective, targeted
treatments through the availability of
high-quality patient samples.
With the collection of samples starting in
January 2005, the Wales Cancer Bank (WCB)
was the first population-based collection
of tumour and control tissue samples to be
established in the UK. A collaborative project
involving Higher Education establishments,
various NHS Trusts in Wales, funded by the
Wales Assembly Government Office of Research
and Development, and Cancer Research Wales,
the WCB aims to collect voluntary samples
from all patients in Wales who undergo an
operation to remove tissue where cancer
is a possible diagnosis.