? The mission and infrastructure of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) create relatively unique opportunities for the collection and analysis of human biospecimens for clinical correlative science studies. The group's surgical-trial focus allows for the prospective collection of fresh tissue specimens from operative procedures. Neoadjuvant trials conducted by the group facilitate the collection of biospecimens from treatment-naive patients and additional, serially timed specimens during the perioperative and post-operative (adjuvant) phase of treatment. Finally, the group's surgeon-based membership results in the recruitment of study participants and corresponding collection of biospecimens from a large number of primary, non-academic medical centers that are often not represented in other cooperative group studies. Accordingly, the goal of the ACOSOG Central Specimen Bank (ACOSOG-CSB) is to capitalize upon these unique features of ACOSOG to create a quality-controlled biospecimen repository with emphasis on frozen tissue specimens that are particularly well suited for molecular correlative science studies. To accomplish this goal, the ACOSOG-CSB and it's corresponding administrative group, the ACOSOG Tissue Bank Subcommittee, will support four main objectives. First, the ACOSOG-CSB will facilitate the collection of molecularly preserved biospecimens from patients enrolled on clinical trials. Emphasis will be placed on education and engagement of local pathologists in this effort. Second, the ACOSOG-CSB will serve as a central site for specimen storage, processing, and quality review. Best practices developed by the NCI Group Banking Committee (GBC) will be implemented as part of the bank's Standard Operating Procedures. Third, the ACOSOG-CSB will serve as a distribution center of specimens for both centralized pathology review and correlative science studies. In particular, the bank's existing expertise will be used to create assay-ready"""""""" materials (DNA and RNA) for correlative science studies. Fourth, members from the ACOSOG Tissue Bank Subcommittee will participate in the GBC, providing their unique experiences as related to developing standards for tissue procurement and informatics, and likewise benefiting from other cooperative group banking expertise. The long-term outcome of this effort will be the maturation of this Cooperative Group tissue bank into a biospecimen resource for the """"""""post-genomic era."""""""" ? ?
