The purpose of this shared resource is to provide human tissues, biological fluids, and expert pathologic interpretation for investigators in all of the projects under the direction of expert pathologists. The Histopathology and Tissue/Biologic Fluids Resource has been in existence since 1986 and expanded under the support of the GI SPORE. As of this year, the Resource includes 3156 banked colorectal carcinoma resection specimens, 363 colorectal adenoma samples, 430 hepatic metastases of colorectal carcinoma, 1204 pancreatic carcinoma specimens, 843 xenografts of colorectal carcinoma, 101 pancreatic carcinoma xenografts, 6085 blood specimens from individuals at risk for colorectal carcinoma, and 2122 blood specimens from patients with pancreatic carcinoma. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues, frozen materials and clinical and outcome data are available for the vast majority of resection specimens. This resource has collections to include high quality snap frozen and formalin fixed samples of end stage pancreatic or colorectal cancer from 125 rapid autopsy participants. Presently there are 911 tissue microarrays of which 133 are of colorectal and pancreatic neoplasms and diseases. In addition, over 16 fully characterized pancreatic carcinoma cell lines, including 8 familial pancreatic cancer cell lines have been prepared from human tumors and shared broadly with the research community. The biospecimens are harvested and banked in accordance with the National Cancer Institute's Best Practice Guidelines for Biorepositories. Distribution of these specimens to SPORE investigators has resulted in over 120 publications in the past 5 years. This Core procures additional xenografts, fresh frozen colorectal and pancreatic neoplasms and blood and pancreatic juice samples, and provides expert pathologic consultation to investigators. Specimens are collected under the supervision of pathologists with expertise in colorectal and pancreatic neoplasia in close collaboration with clinical specialists in these areas and in similarly close collaboration with basic research investigators to maximize translational impact of the projects. We maintain a password protected web-based tracking system for our tissues in this core. This Web-based interface follows the recommendations of the National Research Council, and includes user authentication, encryption, audit trails, and disaster recovery. A mechanism is in place for prioritization of distribution of requested resources to investigators within and external to the Johns Hopkins GI Cancer SPORE. Biosamples have been shared with investigators at over 50 other institutions.
Neoplasms of the pancreas and colon are among the most common causes of cancer related death in the United States. This core resource will thus support the projects of this application related to the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic and/or colorectal neoplasia with high quality tissues and biosamples.
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