Tumour Banking: The Spanish Design

Abstract

In Spain, as in most developed countries, a large number of private or public institutions keep biorepositories of human tumour samples. In fact, most of the currently accepted oncological entities were described in the 20th century by a clinical-pathological approach based on the study of tumours collected through collaborations between clinicians and pathologists. In parallel, and almost without effective connections with the clinical setting, basic researchers have produced a plethora of data, focusing on the main cancer basic mechanisms which mostly use cell lines and animal models.The last decade of the 20th century was the scenario of a biotechnological revolution, characterised not only by new methods for genomic and proteomic studies but also by being able to effectively and efficiently transfer this technology to many research centres in the developed world as well as to its clinical setting. These technical developments have renewed the need for high-quality tissue samples, especially in an era when this technology is of increasing clinical value to [1-3] :• Identify new parameters of clinical value, therefore demanding large-scale molecular studies with large numbers of cases.• Transfer knowledge from basic to clinical research, which requires homogeneous tissue-sampling protocols for multi-centre studies.• Confirm results obtained in the animal models and human cell lines, which requires providing human samples of clinical origin to basic research groups. Key WordsBiobank ؒ Biorepository ؒ Tumour bank ؒ Tumour bank network ؒ Translational research AbstractIn the last decade the technical advances in high throughput techniques to analyze DNA, RNA and proteins have had a potential major impact on prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of many human diseases. Key pieces in this process, mainly thinking about the future, are tumour banks and tumour bank networks. To face these challenges, diverse suitable models and designs can be developed. The current article presents the development of a nationwide design of tumour banks in Spain based on a network of networks, specially focusing on its harmonization efforts mainly regarding technical procedures, ethical requirements, unified quality control policy and unique sample identification. We also describe our most important goals for the next years. This model does not correspond to a central tumour bank, but to a cooperative and coordinated network of national and regional networks. Independently from the network in which it is included, sample collections reside in their original institution, where it can be used for further clinical diagnosis, teaching and research activities of each independent hospital. The herein described 'network of networks' functional model could be useful for other countries and/or international tumour bank activities.

Biobanking for better healthcare

“…For proper biomarker/profile description it is not enough to describe a discovery in one group of patients, but needs in addition independent rounds of validation in other independent patient groups. Therefore, it is absolutely instrumental to work together in networks of biobanks (Morente et al., 2007; Yuille et al., 2008; Riegman and Llombart‐Bosch, 2008). In Europe plans have been launched for an infrastructure of a pan European biobank network (BBMRI) that will be integrated in infrastructure for research on drug development (Yuille et al., 2008).…”

Registros y biobancos de enfermedades raras. Una oportunidad para avanzar

“…Como ya hemos visto en puntos anteriores, los biobancos en España y en los países de nuestro entorno han experimentado un enorme desarrollo durante los últimos años (Morente, Álava y Fernández, 2007). En términos generales podemos afirmar que este desarrollo ha venido acompañado de una evolución en la forma de entender el mundo del biobanking.…”

Organization of a Tumor Bank: The Experience of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico

“…As at the S. João de Portugal Hospital TB [10] , one of the principal operative problems that we have encoun-tered at the INCan TB involves human resources and staff training. Collaboration of staff including physicians and nurses who work in the different areas was scarce.…”

“…It is not known exactly which TB was the first to operate regularly; however, in recent years extensive TB networks have been formed that operate in a regular manner, such as the TuBaFrost Consortium in Europe [8] , the Cooperative Human Tissue Network [9] in the US formed in 1987, and the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre-Spanish National Tumour Bank Network (CNIO-SNTBN) [10] , among others, all of which contribute to the globalization of science.…”