Research

The cbcf Tumor Bank holds donations of over 8000 tissue and over 4000 blood samples from 40 different cancer types. Clinical data is available for all samples and extensive clinical annotations exist for some tumor types.

 

As a charter member of the Canadian Tumor Repository Network (CTRNet) our bank uses and develops leading-edge tumor banking practices. We follow Alberta Health Services and CTRNet approved policies and  use these policies to create our Standard Operating Procedures.

 

We adopt best practices from the guidelines of internationally recognized organizations such as National Institute of Health, Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (NIH OBBR) and the International Society of Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER).

 

 Tissues are snap frozen and stored in a liquid nitrogen vapour phase. The time from devitalization to freezing is recorded, with 20 minutes being the goal. These tissues are suitable for RNA analysis; quality control assessment  of RNA isolated from samples stored for 8 years shows a high degree of RNA integrity. Blood is fractionated into derivatives such as serum, plasma, red blood cells, and buffy coats. The Tumor Bank can provide small aliquots of these derivatives including isolated DNA to researchers.

 

The Biological Materials Available page and Application Form provide information on how to access samples.

 

Please Contact Us with questions.