History

The cbcf Tumor Bank has evolved out of two previously existing investigator initiated programs: a Research Tissue Repository in Calgary and the PolyomX Program in Edmonton.

• A Research Tissue Repository, established in 1995 by Dr. D. Demetrick was funded by Calgary Laboratory Services (CLS) as a service to the medical research community. Its mandate was to provide human tissue specimens to local medical researchers for research efforts, usually related to cancer.
• The PolyomX Program was initially established by Dr. B. Zanke in 2001 with start-up funding from Alberta Health and Wellness and the Alberta Cancer Foundation. It banked a variety of high quality cancer specimens within a multidisciplinary cancer genomics program.

In 2005, with funding from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, the open source cbcf Tumor Bank was formed. The Tumor Bank is located in the Alberta Health Services tertiary treatment facilities at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary and the University of Calgary. This provincial tumor bank initiative is a multi-user resource that provides a comprehensive collection of cancer specimens with related clinical information to a wide range of cancer researchers in Alberta and elsewhere. In 2009 cbcf Tumor bank partnered with the Tomorrow Project and Population Health Research to form the Alberta Cancer Research (ACR) Biorepository. The three programs within the ACR Biorepository consortium maintain separate funding.

Currently the Tumor Bank receives generous funding from the Alberta Cancer Foundation.