From the Lobby to the Freezer: Integrating Tissue Archiving into Clinical Practice

摘要

With the advancement of molecular biology techniques has come a greater need for tumor biorepositories to provide appropriate material for continued discovery. Many current biorepositories in both human and veterinary medicine are a byproduct resourceof project or investigator driven studies. Samples collected via this mechanism are often specific to a certain disease type and may become available for other investigation only after the primary project is complete. They are in many cases linked to avery well annotated data set that makes them an invaluable resource for future studies that may be completely unrelated to the initial project they were collected for. It also raises special considerations about using "left over" tissues for other purposes. Another type of tissue bank involves systematic collection of all tissues available from a population, that are then stored for future use. This situation is less common and often lacks an up front scientific question and the financial support that comes from specific projects or grants. As technology advances, using smaller samples for greater discoveries is becoming a reality and the importance of this resource is being recognized at many levels.