Molecular biology combined with pathology is fast becoming the standard of practice in pediatric cancer diagnosis within the Pediatric Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN), our working hypothesis is the centralized tracking, procurement/preparation and dispersal of pediatric tissue specimens facilitate biomedical and molecular biologic research. Pediatric cancer remains the number one cause of death due to disease in children, and studies of its genetic mechanisms may serve as a model for studies of adult cancers.
Our SPECIFIC AIMS are fourfold: 1) to expand pediatric tumor procurement working with the newly-unified Children?s Oncology Group (C.O.G.), 2) to enhance processing of tissues via new technologies to facilitate molecular research, 3) to initiate new informed consent procedures facilitating linkage to clinical outcomes, and 4) to expand networking of rare specimens (leukemias, adolescent cancers) through the CHTN mechanisms to increase investigator access. To achieve these aims, the Pediatric CHTN has newly partnered with the C.O.G. which should provide new access to 94 percent of pediatric cancers in North America - with up to two-thirds of patients joining clinical protocols. The Pediatric CHTN will offer new technologies for processing of pediatric cancer tissues - """"""""RNA Later"""""""" solution in kits, nucleic acid extractions, Laser Capture Microscopy, and tissue microarrays to facilitate molecular biologic studies. The Pediatric CHTN and C.O.G. will also partner to place informed consents on surgical or other procedural consent forms -so that """"""""up-front"""""""" informed consent may improve patient entry onto clinical protocols (goal >90 percent) with its linkage to clinical follow-up. Finally, the Pediatric CHTN and C.O.G. will partner to improve investigator access via the CHTN to cancers which are rare to obtain for molecular studies (adolescent, cancers, leukemias). Achievement of these aims should help the Pediatric CHTN to further facilitate pediatric cancer research in the new millennium.
