The Tissue and Outcomes Core is responsible for identifying women diagnosed with breast cancer at theUniversity of California, San Francisco (UCSF, including San Francisco General Hospital - SFGH) and theCalifornia Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), collecting fresh tissue (at UCSF and SFGH) and paraffin blocks(at all sites), collecting and entering clinical, epidemiologic, pathology and follow-up information into adatabase (for all sites), and distributing breast tissue with associated clinical information to SPOREinvestigators. Tissue is collected prospectively at the time of surgery and banked as fresh-frozen cassettesor formalin-fixed blocks. Fresh tissue for culture is also collected. The Core also identifies archival formalinblocks for studies and coordinates with other tumor banks to obtain additional material for investigators.Tissues are reviewed by Core pathologists as needed for histopathologic features and to confirm thepresence and percentage of tumor cells. Requests for tissue and clinical data are approved by a Tissue &Data Utilization Committee, which reviews requests for project feasibility and priorities. The Core extractsDMA and RNA for studies and coordinates preparation of tissue microarray blocks. In addition to baselinedata collected on women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, the Core obtains informed consent for tissueuse and follow-up information to determine disease status on all women in the database by mailing women asurvey every 18-months. Annual linkage is done with the Northern California Surveillance, Epidemiology,and End Results (SEER) program to determine vital status and disease specific mortality. Baseline andfollow-up information from 4,239 women with breast cancer (3,240 invasive and 902 DCIS cases) diagnosedat UCSF, CPMC, or SFGH with a median follow-up time of six years are currently in a relational database.The overall goal for the next five years is to maintain and expand the tissue bank and database so that it cancontinue to serve as a resource to conduct high quality, clinically significant translational research and toacquire breast cancer outcomes for study populations.
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