Provincial Tumor Bank
The provincial open source cbcf Tumor Bank was formed in 2005 with funding support from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Our bank operates out of two centers, the Tom Baker Cancer Center in Calgary and the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton. Although our bank is distributed over two sites, we are linked by inventory control, databases and procedures. This allows us to accrue samples from the two major centers in Alberta while maintaining flexibility to adapt to the local requirements at both locations.
The holdings of the cbcf Tumor Bank include tissues from over 8000 donations of blood samples and over 4000 donations of solid tumor tissue. These samples represent 40 cancer types and are available to qualified medical researchers. The bank also includes some non-malignant tissues for use as contols in many research applications. Application details can be found here.
In 2009 the cbcf Tumor bank joined in a partnership with the Tomorrow Project and Population Health Research to form the Alberta Cancer Research Biorepository, supported by the Alberta Cancer Foundation. This relationship has strengthened our infrastructure and enhanced our ability to accrue participants.
As charter members 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.