Tumour Banks

Last updated on 04/02/2010

Tumour banks are biological repositories designed to provide biological samples together with dynamic biological, clinical and anatomical-pathological annotations useful in conducting oncological analyses.They serve a dual scientific/healthcare purpose.

The primary objective of preserving tumour samples for healthcare purposes is to optimise analyses that improve diagnosis and prognosis and boost the effectiveness of therapeutic care for the disease, particularly by means of new targeted therapies, as these become available. The mission of the tumour banks in this regard is essentially akin to storing a fact in a medical file for future "reference" and providing reinterpretation as the patient’s disease progresses and in the light of possible future medical advances.

The objective of preserving tumour samples for scientific purposes is to provide research programmes with parts of the human body that are essential to furthering our understanding and refining the characterisation of the biomolecular processes specific to each type of cancer and finally to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Access to human biological samples, by means of collection or requalification of samples obtained as part of providing healthcare, is a key component in the process of translational research and advances from biotech and pharmaceutical R&D.

Therefore, the organisation and operation of tumour banks meeting the quality requirements for sample preparation, preservation and annotation constitutes a major challenge in advancing our understanding and treatment of cancer.