This Tissue/Pathology Core provides well-characterized human biological specimens to researchers participating in this Cervical Cancer SPORE and other collaborative research efforts. In the first funding period this core collected over 78,000 individual aliquots from over 3524 patients enrolled by the SPORE in Cervical Cancer and distributed 6332 aliquots to date. This includes over 28,000 aliquots from 838 patients to date from a clinical trial and two epidemiologic studies of the JHU Breast Cancer and Head and Neck SPOREs at no additional cost. In addition to the growing need for sophisticated sample acquisition, our investigators depend on expert pathology support to ensure proper tissue preparation and characterization for selected studies. This Core provides such expert pathologic evaluation of specimens and technical support. Specifically, this core continues to: 1. Obtain informed consent and collect specimens from patients for translational research without compromise of patient care or confidentiality;2. Collect cervical carcinoma and pre-malignant lesions, as well as normal tissue from patients, including those enrolled in clinical trials for the SPORE projects;3. Collect blood, secretions and exfoliated cells (e.g. cervical scrapes) from patients, including those enrolled in clinical trials for the SPORE projects;4. Process and store clinical specimens following SOPs to address the requirements of all SPORE investigators;5. Input specimen information into central database system and track specimen distribution and transport;6. Characterize tissue specimens with respect to site of origin, pathologic grading and staging, and proportion of neoplastic and stromal tissue;7. Use well-defined mechanisms for prioritization of the distribution of requested specimens to investigators within and external to the Johns Hopkins SPORE;8. Provide quality-controlled specimens in a timely fashion as inexpensively and efficiently as possible;9. Route specimens for histologic and virologic analyses e.g. immunohistochemical staining, in situ hybridization, tissue microarraying, and HPV testing and typing, immunophenotyping, or laser-capture microdissection in fee-per-service Comprehensive Cancer Center core facilities;10. Support the development and implementation of immunologic assays. The samples will be tracked using CaTissue, a CaBIG complaint database, web-enabled for access by our projects at UAB and UC. The activities of this Core will be integrated with those of the Administrative/Clinical Core A, the Biostatistics and Data Management Core B and the Immunology Core D to ensure that specimens and clinical information are appropriately catalogued and disseminated.
Organized collection and expert pathologic evaluation of human tissues and biologic fluids is pivotal to the translational mission of this SPORE program. Thus this Tissue/Pathology Core is designed to collect, process, store and distribute high quality, well-characterized human biological specimens to researchers participating in this Cervical Cancer SPORE and other collaborative cancer research efforts.
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