What is a biobank?
A biobank is a place (typically a freezer) where blood and tissue, donated by Patients, is stored until the samples are used by researchers in approved research projects.
How does a tissue sample help in the fight against cancer?
The pathological diagnosis of cancer type is based on microscopic appearance, and patients whose cancer type, extent of spread and aggressiveness are similar receive the same post-operative treatment. However, we now know that two patient’s cancers may look the same, but their cancer genes and proteins may be different, causing a difference in response to treatment and prognosis.
This is where biobanking comes in. In frozen tissue samples the cancer cells’ genes (and the proteins they code for) are pre/served. Researchers can therefore examine the tissue to learn more about how individual cancers grow and spread. Cancer cells have internal signalling pathways, with protein stations at intervals along the pathways, a bit like DART stations. Just as each train responds to signals between stations, the cell responds to signals to divide and produce more cancer cells, or to die or carry out other functions. If we can identify the protein stations in a particular cancer, we might be able to develop a new drug to block the signal to one or more stations, thus stopping cancer growth. Herceptin is an example of a new drug that blocks the growth of aggressive breast cancer in this way, and has improved the outlook for many thousands of women.
What do researchers do with the samples?
Researchers may use tissues to investigate, for example, how and why cancers grow and spread; or to better understand why some cancers occur spontaneously while others occur in families. Breast cancer is an example of such a cancer, so it is crucial that we understand how and why it develops in the first place. Researchers need tissue (and blood) to carry out these experiments, and this is why tissue samples donated by cancer Patients are so critical. Researchers can test samples to identify changes between tumour and normal tissue and determine why these changes occur and if there are hereditary factors involved (i.e. changes passed from parent to child). It is hoped that in the future researchers will discover novel biomarkers or components of tissue which will help to identify people at risk of developing cancer so they can be monitored more carefully. Eventually, we hope to avert these unwanted or bad changes altogether, thus preventing the development and growth of cancer.