Correlative Science / Tumour Bank

The NCIC Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG) established the Tumour Tissue Data Repository (TTDR) in 1997 to support Correlative Science with the assistance of Rhone Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi-Aventis). The NCIC CTGTTDR contains unique disease specific collections which are linked to an associated clinical dataset. This represents a "real" tumour bank in that tissue is collected from institutions across Canada and the world, catalogued and housed centrally in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at Queen's University.

Our Mission

To establish a collection of specimens stored in house and linked with clinical trials dataset. Access to this tissue permits the assessment of prognostic factors in determining the outcome of disease, the assessment of predictive factors to various chemotherapeutic agents and treatment regimens, and to facilitate the understanding of the basic biological and genetic mechanisms of cancer.

Profile

The NCIC CTG TTDR has taken part in collection of tissue for over 120 clinical trials. The central coordinating office for the Bank is located in Kingston, Ontario. Participating centres include cancer care organizations, academic health science centres, community hospitals, and smaller individual practices. These centres were initially in Canada but more recently samples have been collected worldwide.

Inventory

The TTDR collects a wide array of tissue including Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Blocks (FFPE), stained and unstained glass slides, urine, whole blood, plasma, serum, and other blood derivatives. The following table provides a complete list of specimens received between 1997 - 2011.

Table 1: Summary of samples collected between 1997 and 2011.

Specimen Type	Number of Patients	Number of Specimens
Blocks/Slides	13640	26480/71098
Whole Blood	5362	14232
Plasma	4201	38694
Serum	10931	46405
Urine	533	3513

A complete inventory of available samples can be found online https://scooby.ctg.queensu.ca/tum_bank/tum.php.