Role of Biobanks in Cancer Research. Increasingly, health researchers and industry are realizing the value of biobanks and their linkages to medical record data, phenotypic information, and sociodemographic data (93). Biobanks serve as essential resources for genetic and public health research, including studies of associations between genotypes, measures of environmental exposures, and understanding the role of genetics in disease susceptibility (92). Biobanks generally collect specimens from two distinct groups: (1) the general public and (2) disease-specific populations. The primary goal of the general population biobank is to identify biomarkers and genetic markers for disease susceptibility among a large, representative population of healthy people. The disease-orientated biobanks focus on identifying biomarkers of exposure and tjiomarkers of disease, such as colorectal cancer (94). Some biobanks target sub-populations like women or geographical regions (92). Biobanks of varying size are found all over the world and they are often funded by government entities (91).
