The European Commission May Network Tissue Banks to Boost Cancer Research, Promote Cooperation

Extract

Inaccessible, poor quality, and insufficient numbers—scientists have complained for years about the state of tissue samples for research. The crisis is particularly acute in the cancer field. Scientists must search far and wide to gather enough patient samples for their research. But without standard protocols governing how to collect and store tissues, samples are often inconsistent and thus unusable.

“Biobanking of research tissues has never been done on a high quality level,” said Mark Rubin, M.D., chief of urologic pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

But the landscape is changing rapidly. As part of a global trend, many countries have either passed laws governing tissue collection and storage or launched efforts to make the process more uniform. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in the European Union.

The Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, for example, has been collecting and bar coding tissue samples in a core facility since 2002. Both Spain and France are trying to network their national tumor banks to harmonize tissue collection protocols and improve access. In 2006, England implemented the Human Tissue Act that requires any facility within England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that stores tissue to obtain a license from the Human Tissue Authority (HTA)—a government agency created to enforce the act (Scotland passed its own Human Tissue Act).