The overall objective of the Tissue Procurement Facility (TPF) is to procure and provide needed tissuespecimens to Stanford University Cancer Center investigators to support their cancer-related research.TPF activities and services include collecting and banking freshly-frozen tumor and normal tissues fromexcess surgical material and from autopsy, providing fresh tumor tissue for viable cell studies,processing and banking serum specimens from cancer patients, maintaining a tissue database with linksto clinicopathological data, providing histological staining and pathological review, and coordinatingpatient consent and assuring regulatory compliance. As a centralized Shared Resource, the TPF addsvalue through experience, efficiency, standardization, accountability, protection of patientconfidentially, and timely completion of research. An advisory board provides recommendations onfacility policies and activities, and performs scientific and logistical review of service requests. In FY2005the TPF, and satellite repositories, have provided tissue specimens to Cancer Center membersrepresenting 8 out of 10 Programs. Highlights of the research supported by the Facility include thediscovery of clinically-relevant gene-expression subtypes of breast and prostate cancers. The TPF alsoprovides a portal to a 'virtual bank' linking inventories of specialized 'satellite' repositories, includingcollections of hematological and neurosurgical specimens. Future plans include an expansion ofuniversal-consent based tissue procurement, increased efforts to bank both paraffin tissue blocks andviable cells, and more detailed clinical annotation of tissue specimens.
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