Wales Cancer Bank
The Wales Cancer Bank (WCB) consents patients in Wales to donate tissue and blood samples for future, cancer related research.
The project is funded by the Welsh Government’s National Institute for Social Care and Health Research, Cancer Research Wales and Velindre NHS Trust and is based in Cardiff University but has a pan Wales remit to collect a populated based sample collection.
WCB is licensed by the Human Tissue Authority to store human tissue for research and has ethics approval as a Research Tissue Bank from the Wales Research Ethics Committee. Cardiff University has Service Level Agreements with six Health Boards around Wales to consent patients and collect samples.
The tissue donated is excess to diagnostic requirement and wherever possible frozen and paraffin embedded tumour and normal tissue is collected after scrutiny by a pathologist. A wide range of tumour types is collected and samples are further processed to make a wide range of sample formats available (slides, tissue microarrays, DNA, RNA, serum, genomic DNA).
Cancer researchers from around the world, in academia, biotech companies or the pharmaceutical industry can apply to WCB to access samples. All samples are supplied anonymised, with a basic data set of age at operation, gender and diagnosis. Further pathology related data is available and clinical data (treatment and outcome) is also available on request.
WCB provides a digital imaging service to researchers using the Mirax scan system, tissue microarray construction using a semi-automated array and laser capture microdissection.
WCB also provides a hosting service for clinical trial samples collected as part of a translational study attached to a trial. Ten UK clinical trials currently house their tissue and blood samples with WCB.
Professor Malcolm Mason is the Director of the WCB and more information, including a sample search facility, can be found on the project’s website Wales Cancer Bank