ECOG-ACRIN (EA) represents the merger of ECOG and ACRIN to form a cooperative group focused on practice-changing clinical and translational research across the cancer care continuum from cancer prevention and early detection, through the management of advanced disease and its impact. This application is to support the infrastructure and banking operations for one of the five NCI National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) Biospecimen Banks. Together, the NCTN Banks will form an integrated network and will collaborate with each other and with affiliated NCTN Group Statistics and Data Management Centers, Operations Offices, other NCTN units, NCI-sponsored programs and investigators, and the NCI. The goal is to ensure the collection, storage, and distribution of well-annotated human biospecimens, procured from cancer patients participating in NCI-funded NCTN Phase III and large Phase II clinical treatment trials. EA's Specific Aims are: 1) To collect, process, store, catalog, and distribute malignant and non-malignant tissues, cells, blood, and other fluid specimens and their derivatives (DNA, RNA, and protein) from patients enrolled in EA clinical trials following the NCI's Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources and to link the specimens to relevant clinical, pathologic, and molecular data within the NCTN program; 2) To develop and utilize both routine and innovative biospecimen resources that will aid in the successful completion of NCTN-supported clinical trials based on integral biomarkers and of related correlative studies to promote the development of novel biomarker-driven personalized cancer therapeutic strategies; 3) To develop capabilities for performing classic and molecular methodologies on tissue, cell, blood, and other body fluid-based specimens from EA clinical trial patients, including planned future consolidation of specimen-based functions, and provide expert interpretation of the findings in close collaboration with the investigators leading the related NCTN-supported clinical trials; and 4) To assist investigators outside and within the NCTN to access biospecimens for research via IT Navigator and NCTN Biospecimen front door services, and to participate actively in, lead, and coordinate the activities of the NCI Grou Banking Committee (GBC), the NCI Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN), and other National Institutes of Health (NIH)/NCI-supported specimen banking organizations.
The ECOG-ACRIN Central Biorepository and Pathology Facility and Leukemia Tissue Bank will receive, process, store and distribute high quality, well-annotated tissue specimens as well as blood and other biological fluids from patients participating in NCTN clinical trials. The specimens will encompass adult solid malignant and non-malignant tumors (e.g., tumors of the brain, breast, gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary trac, gynecologic/reproductive system, head and neck, skin, liver, lung, soft tissue, and thyroid gland) and hematologic malignancies (leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma).
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