Over the past decade, knowledge about the pathogenesis of human tumors has been attributed to and limited by the availability of well-characterized human tissues. With this in mind, tissue/biologic fluid facilities have emerged as a means of overseeing tissue distribution for investigative studies. The purpose of the Shared Resource is to provide human tissues, biologic fluids, and expert pathologic interpretation for investigators on all of the projects. The Resource will collect, store, process, and distribute tissues and biologic fluids in a highly coordinated fashion. The Resource will collect tissue/biologic fluids in a manner that meets the needs of the individual investigators without compromising clinical patient care. The Resource will store these samples in such a way as to ensure long-term security and easy accessibility. The Resource will process samples so that they are suitable for further analysis. Finally, the Resource will distribute samples to investigators in a timely fashion. Specimens are collected under the supervision of pathologists with expertise in neoplasia of the upper aerodigestive tract in close collaboration with clinical specialists in this area and in similarly close collaboration with basic research investigators to maximize translational impact of the projects. A concerted effort to collect and bank tissue specimens and biologic fluids from the upper respiratory tract has been an ongoing effort since 1990. As of 9/1/01, the resource of freshly collected human biological specimens (not inclusive of the paraffin tissue bank) includes 1,060 banked head and neck carcinoma resection specimens, 10 pre-invasive mucosal dysplasias, 327 oral rinses/oral swabs obtained from at-risk but cancer-free individuals, and 2,728 histologically negative specimens including margin samples from cancer resection specimens, and 200 thyroid neoplasms. These materials have been collected with appropriate IRB approval and patient consent. The processing of these tissues to ensure suitability for investigative purposes has become increasingly refined. At the present time, the Shared Resource has ready access to a laser capture microdissection facility, a tissue array facility, and an immunohistochemistry facility. Distribution of these materials to various investigators including many of those participating in the SPORE has resulted in over 200 publications regarding carcinoma of the head and neck.
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