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, four or five digit tumour bank ID number. The tumour bank maintains a database with patient information such as NCIC CTG ID number, patient initials,
birthdate, 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 (24 hour return guaranteed in the event of medical or legal concerns).
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 only 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 only once the correlative study data is linked via the tumour bank ID number to data in
our clinical database, by our Group biostatisticians.
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