What is the process for the release of banked tissue?

The Correlative Sciences Disease Site Specific Review Committees of the CTG have established a scientific review process for all requests. A well-defined concept and protocol describing the research project, hypothesis, underlying scientific premise, rationale for access to a particular trial material, and statistical considerations must be provided. Adequate funding must be sought or received. REB (Ethics) approval for the project at the site where the research will be conducted must be in place. Analysis of assay results is conducted by the statistical center of the NCIC CTG.

To apply for tissue access, please complete the form below:

Application for tissue research.

Who reviews application for material access?

Several Disease Site Specific Review Committees have been setup to review requests for disease site specific collections. These committees include the Central Office Physician for the disease site, the Disease Site Chair, the Chairs of Studies on which material is being requested (as needed), 1-2 Pathologists, 1-2 Clinical/Basic Scientists, a Central Office Statistician, and Tumour Banking personnel.

Requests for material in the Bank are reviewed 4-6 times a year. All requests will be considered and will be evaluated on the basis of the science involved and the value inherent in the use of clinical trials related material.

Tissue de-identification

Material (tissue blocks, slides, serum, plasma etc.) is received at the NCIC CTG Tumour Bank from the originating institution labeled with pathology accession number and occasionally with other local identifiers. Upon receipt of the material, it is logged by our pathology coordinator and assigned a unique tumour bank ID number. The tumour bank maintains a database with patient information such as NCIC CTG ID number, patient initials, pathology accession number and Tumour Bank ID Number.

Local accession numbers and other unique identifiers are retained in the database at the bank to ensure that blocks can be returned to the pathology department of origin on request.

The value of the NCIC CTG tumour bank lies in our ability to link results of correlative studies to an extensive clinical database. However, in order to preserve patient confidentiality, patient identifiers are not provided to researchers accessing the material.

Material from the bank may be requested for research use, following the policy we have developed for requesting such specimens. Once a project has been approved, pathologic material is released to the researcher, and leaves the bank identified by the unique Tumour bank ID number.

Results of correlative studies are returned by the researcher to our central office for analysis, with individual patient results identified by tumour bank ID. Correlation with the clinical database can take place once the correlative study data is linked via the tumour bank ID number to data in our clinical database, by CTG biostatisticians.

What materials are available?

Click here to see our current inventory