Iran National Tumor BankMolecular and Genetic solutions for cancer

Each cell is a representative unit of the human body with all of its genetic specialties. Identification of genes responsible for specific types of tumors provides a new insight into the cause, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of different kinds of cancers. Scientific and technological advances in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics demand a large number of tumors, and also require access to collections of well- preserved and well-characterized tumor tissue, accompanied by high quality clinical data, family history and pedigree. The Tumor Bank is a collection of surgical tissues that are critical to clinical diagnostic requirements linked with their clinical data specifically to support a range of research studies.Various kinds of therapies should not test on patients directly, but on the live cells, as in-vitro studies first. Detection of tumor markers or creation of vaccine for a tumor is possible as well, with regards to the cell’s special proteins and antigens.TechnologyHaving donors’ informed consent, their samples are preserved within 30 minutes of post- resection. Tissues are verified by pathologists and are subject to a scrutinizing audit process, in order to ensure tissue integrity and data completion. Tissue specimens are labeled with a bar code, entered into the inventory, frozen and stored at -180°C. The patient’s identity is removed from the clinical information, and stored in a secure central database. The material includes blood, normal tissue, pre-neoplastic lesions and tumor tissues. They are processed into frozen tissue and paraffin blocks accompanied by the histology, pathology, clinical data, pedigree, treatment and outcome data related to the patient. ConclusionRecognizing the need for tumor tissue and resource data bank, the Cancer Institute of Tehran University of Medical Sciences has created a Tumor Bank by making high quality tissues and accompanying clinical data available to cancer researchers, and industrial scientists and will help accelerate the identification of new drug targets, prediction of response to therapy and developments aimed at individualized therapy.