The Children's Oncology Group (COG) is the pediatric clinical trials group of the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). Over 90% of United States and Canadian children and adolescents with cancer are treated at COG institutions with no racial, ethnic or geographic bias to registration, allowing for near-population-based clinical, translational and basic research. COG has established a strong track record of collecting and banking tumor and non-diseased biospecimens from patients enrolled in COG-sponsored clinical trials, most of which include randomized treatment questions. The COG Biospecimen Bank (COG BB), located within the Biopathology Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital, aims to provide high-quality pediatric and adolescent human malignant biospecimens to the research community. Annually, the COG BB receives and banks over 100,000 specimens from approximately 5,500 COG patients from over 225 COG institutions, and distributes approximately 10,000 specimens to approved investigators. The bank also offers services such as nucleic acid isolations, pathology review, virtual microscopy, clinical reference laboratory testing, and informatics initiatives. This proposal supports the collection, processing, and distribution of biospecimens from patient enrolled on COG Phase III and large Phase II trials (approximately 4,000 patients per year). The COG BB seeks to directly promote and support outstanding research in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric cancer through centralized collection, quality control, storage, and distribution procedures. The COG BB will continue efforts to provide the latest biorepository based technological innovations and best practices, resulting in constant improvements in our operational capabilities, investigator access to biospecimens, investigator satisfaction, and the stewardship of these precious resources. Under proper regulatory guidelines and in association with the COG Statistical and Data Center, the COG BB will support translational aspects of cutting-edge research by ensuring appropriate tracking of biospecimens as well as linkages to existing demographic, clinical, biological, treatment, and outcome data. Finally the COG BB will provide investigators with a comprehensive database solution and dynamic informatics tools that facilitate pediatric cancer research, including the use of the Biospecimen IT Navigator and the NCTN Biospecimen front door services.
Cure rates for pediatric cancer have improved significantly over the past 30 years due to the enrollment of nearly all affected children in the United States on clinical trials of the Children's Oncology Group (COG) and research from biospecimens banked from these studies. The COG Biospecimen Bank aims to support additional pediatric and adolescent cancer research by collecting, processing, and distributing high quality biospecimens.
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