This application represents a renewal of the AIDS Malignancy Bank (AMB), now known as the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Bank (ACSB), program initially funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1994. Since the initiation of this program, five participating institutions have successfully organized a national AIDS and Cancer Specimen Bank. The ACSB contains 43 categories of malignancy specimens and controls with specimen associated clinical information. The UCSF-ACSB specific aims for this proposal are: 1) to develop a cohesive West Coast based AIDS and Cancer Specimen Bank (ACSB) consortium centered at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); 2) to expand and enhance the UCSF-ACSB function; and 3) to actively participate in the national ACSB and fulfill NCI requirements for continued ACSB participation. In the first specific aim, USC and UCSD will be added to the original UCSF consortium. Dr. Parkash Gill at USC will oversee sample acquisition from a centralized base in Los Angeles. Dr. Brian Herndier, until recently the UCSF based ACSB pathologist will initiate a new ACSB site in San Diego. UCSF?s affiliated hospitals including SFGH, Laguna Honda, VAMC, and Mt. Zion will continue to anchor the San Francisco ACSB core. These San Francisco sites have more than 200,000 specimens banked and during the next five years will serve not only as a useful resource but as a coordinated network for obtaining new specimens as research questions in the scientific community evolve. In the second specific aim, the West Coast ACSB will work with existing specimen banks to merge data from their databases so as to increase access to relevant specimens already in existence. Specifically, the UCSF-AIDS Specimen Bank has made available 173,000 AIDS related specimens obtained since 1983 to the ACSB. Information on active contributors will serve as a network for obtaining new specimens. This interface between West Coast ACSB and a large existing specimen bank is a model for """"""""virtual"""""""" banking planned for future ACSB development through the ACSB Central Operations and Data Coordinating Center (CODCC) to be established next year. Finally, the West Coast ACSB has incorporated two major consortium sites in southern California that are responsive to the overall objectives of the ACSB made by this RFA. The coordinated interaction between this West Coast consortium with other funded ACSB sites will be assured by Dr. McGrath?s continued participation in the overall leadership of the national ACSB.
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