The Iowa Neuroendocrine Tumor (NET) SPORE Biospecimens Core provides a coordinated, centralized, and dedicated core for the procurement, processing and annotation of biospecimens from patients in our Iowa Neuroendocrine Tumor Registry and also from SEER Residual Tissue Repositories. The primary goal of the Biospecimens Core is to procure a variety of biologic specimens on patients with neuroendocrine tumors. These specimens will include fresh or rapidly frozen specimens from patients who have signed the Iowa NET Registry consent as well as de-identified, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens obtained through the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) residual tissue repository (RTR). All specimens will be tracked and stored under conditions that optimize their utility for molecular studies, assuring the Iowa NET SPORE investigators have access to a large number of a wide variety of NET tumor, normal, and germline specimens. All biospecimens will be collected, tracked and distributed to SPORE researchers following the established protocols of the Iowa Tumor Procurement Core (TPC) in the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center (HCCC) and the Iowa SEER. All specimens are collected and processed under tight quality control, tracked and distributed to SPORE researchers or banked for future SPORE research projects. The Core tracks the acquisition, distribution, and results obtained on these specimens, allowing integration with clinical and other data collected in research projects. The Core benefits from the expertise in the HCCC, but does not duplicate its services. The Core supports each of the full and developmental projects. There has been extensive utilization of these biospecimens with resulting clinical and phenotypic data already in our Iowa NET Database. We will continue to accrue new patient samples as well as repository FFPE specimens and will continually work with investigators to utilize this increasingly valuable resource for these orphan tumors.
Specific Aims of the Biospecimens Core are: 1) Collect, process, bank and distribute excess surgical specimens and/or blood/buccal swabs from patients and family members who have signed consent to participate in the Iowa NET Registry; 2) Acquire, process, and distribute de-identified neuroendocrine tumor FFPE specimens obtained through the Iowa Virtual Tumor Repository and SEER Residual Tissue Repository; 3) Provide accurate diagnosis and grade on all tumor specimens according to North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (NANETS) guidelines; 4) Work with the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core to maintain data obtained from Iowa NET Registry biospecimens and SEER Repository biospecimens to further collaborative research leading to improved long term outcomes for patients with NETs.
Well-characterized, pathologically and clinically annotated tumor tissues from patients with neuroendocrine tumors are a critical and valuable resource for translating the basic molecular and biological understanding of neuroendocrine tumors into improved treatments for these patients. The Biospecimens Core meets these needs by linking the biospecimens from patients in our Registry to their phenotypic and genotypic data in the Iowa Neuroendocrine Tumor Database making both the specimens and all experimental results obtained with these specimens available to SPORE investigators.
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