The Cancer Society Tissue Bank (CSTB) underpins cancer research using human samples. The samples are provided through a collection process that is ethically, legally, culturally and scientifically sound. The bank is a collaboration involving the University of Otago, Christchurch, the Canterbury District Health Board and the Canterbury/West Coast division of the Cancer Society New Zealand.
Tissue banking for cancer research:
The CSTB provides tissues as well as clinicopathological data to researchers. Only samples that have pre-analytical conditions that will best support the proposed molecular analysis are selected.
How the Cancer Society Tissue Bank supports cancer research:
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Since 1996 over 9000 adult and pediatric patients have become donors
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A number of donors have donated multiple times over the course of their disease and treatment
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Many samples have now accrued 5 year and 10+ year clinical follow up data, enhancing the value of research outputs
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More than 60 studies have used complex sample and data sets from the bank
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More than 10,000 samples of frozen tissue, paraffin blocked tissue, serum, plasma and DNA have been accessed