Tissue Procurement Core

庞塞医学院(PSM)的个人计算机(PC)的目的是方便收集、处理和存储注释良好的人类生物标本，用于研究人员发起的转化性癌症研究。在过去五年中，建立了坚实的基础设施，以开发波多黎各的第一个肿瘤组织银行，能够最佳地收集、处理和分发来自岛上拉美裔人口的生物材料。通过这种独特的资源，它遵循在MCC组织核心建立的相同标准操作程序(SOP)(并得到我们机构的IRB委员会的批准)，新鲜组织和高质量的RNA已经可以支持这两个机构的研究，重点是居住在波多黎各的波多黎各拉美裔和居住在佛罗里达的拉美裔癌症健康差异的分子方面和生物学决定因素。鉴于1)拉美裔占美国人口的15%(增长最快的少数族裔人口)，2)美国大多数癌症健康差异研究是在墨西哥裔美国人中进行的，3)不同拉美裔人口在癌症趋势和与癌症健康差异相关的独特方面存在差异，以及4)波多黎各人参与的基础科学癌症研究，该机构是一项具有高度公共卫生意义的宝贵资源。从这一人群中获得生物标本(正常/肿瘤组织、血清/DNA)将支持对癌症健康差异的迫切需要的研究，并有助于回答涉及拉美裔的基因-环境-文化相互作用的问题。 我们建议扩大和进一步发展现有的伙伴关系TPC：1)扩大生物材料的收集范围，包括石蜡切片[以支持蛋白质表达、微RNA和组织微阵列(TMA)的制备研究]，以及血液[以支持未来的遗传、表观遗传学和蛋白质组学分析]；以及2)为PSM的研究人员提供基本组织学技术、免疫组织化学(IHC)方法和高级病理分析方面的支持。 主要影响拉美裔人口的癌症类型的TMA将利用MCC组织核心基础设施进行开发。波多黎各患者样本的DNA/血清库将创建一个独特的资源，使研究人员能够利用MCC也提供的高通量基因组学和基于蛋白质组学的技术。这些资源将支持对易患癌症的因素(例如，单核苷酸多态[SNPs]、祖先的贡献)、SNPs对患者治疗反应的影响(药物基因组学)以及诊断或预后分子和蛋白质组学特征的发现的研究。随着个体化/个人化医学和生物标记物发现工作的兴起，建立组织/DNA/血清库将是一个宝贵的资源，可用于加深我们对易患或保护波多黎各人患癌症的分子因素的理解。波多黎各拉美裔人之间已知差异的遗传基础，包括某些类型癌症的不同患病率，只能通过获得这些生物样本来揭示。这一合作伙伴关系在满足这一需求方面处于独特的地位。事实上，U56资助的TPC已经为基础和临床伙伴关系的研究人员提供了一个集中化的机制，以按照标准化的方案收集、存储和处理人体组织。由于将实验研究成果转化为临床需要对收集的生物标本进行多参数表征，因此很早就决定使用CABIG的S生物信息库管理工具CATIssue Suite来收集和存储相关数据，这将促进重要的临床病理数据与研究结果的关联，同时保护患者的机密性。PSM是波多黎各、加勒比海地区或拉丁美洲唯一与caBIG连接的癌症研究中心。将这一实践扩展到多种肿瘤类型、正常组织和液体标本将代表着向下一层次的复杂程度的飞跃。已经作出努力，确保组织储存和信息储存程序使用该领域的最高标准进行，并通过参加GMAP/BMAP(MCC和PSM是区域3的合作伙伴)与全国各地的其他生物库工作相协调。据设想，由U54资助的、专门针对拉美裔的TPC将促进伙伴关系机构之间以及与其他机构之间的更多合作，并将促进应用新的分子技术来解决波多黎各拉美裔(居住在岛上或大陆)和其他居住在美国的拉美裔美国人之间的癌症健康差异。此外，这一TPC构成了为PSM-MCC伙伴关系招募癌症研究人员的宝贵资产。

The purpose of the PC at Ponce School of Medicine (PSM) is to facilitate the collection, processing, and storage of well-annotated human biospecimens for use in investigator-initiated translational cancer research. Throughout the past five years a solid infrastructure was put in place to develop the first tumor tissue bank in Puerto Rico, capable of the optimal collection, processing, and distribution of biological materials derived from the island's Hispanic population. Through this unique resource, which follows the same standard operational procedures (SOPs) established at the Tissue Core at MCC (and which are approved by our institutions' IRB committees), fresh tissues and high quality RNA are already available to support research at both institutions focusing on the molecular aspects and biological determinants of cancer health disparities involving Puerto Rican Hispanics living in Puerto Rico and Hispanics living in Florida. This facility is a valuable resource of high public health significance given that 1) Hispanics represent 15% of the US population (the fastest growing minority population), 2) most cancer health-disparity studies in the US have been conducted with Mexican-American populations, 3) there are differences in cancer trends and unique aspects associated to cancer health disparities among the different Hispanic populations, and 4) there is a scarcity of basic science-oriented cancer studies involving Puerto Ricans. Availability of biospecimens (normal/tumor tissue, serum/DNA) from this population will support much needed research on cancer health disparities and facilitate answering questions on gene-environment-culture interactions involving Hispanics. We propose to expand and further develop the existing Partnership TPC to: 1) extend the collection of biological materials to include paraffin blocks [to support studies on protein expression, microRNA, and the preparation of Tissue Microarrays (TMA)], and of blood [to support future genetic, epigenetic and proteomic analyses]; and 2) to provide support in basic histological techniques, immunohistochemistry (IHC) methods, and advanced pathological analyses to investigators at PSM. TMAs of cancer types that predominantly affect the Hispanic population will be developed utilizing the MCC Tissue Core infrastructure. A DNA/serum repository of Puerto Rican patient samples will create a unique resource that will allow investigators to take advantage of high-throughput genomics- and proteomics-based technologies also available at MCC. These resources will support studies of factors (e.g., single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs], ancestry contribution) predisposing individuals to cancer development, the impact of SNPs on patient response to therapy (pharmacogenomics), and the discovery of diagnostic or prognostic molecular and proteomic signatures. With the rise of individualized/personalized medicine and biomarker discovery efforts, establishing a tissue/DNA/serum repository would be a valuable resource that can be used for furthering our understanding of the molecular factors that predispose or protect the Puerto Rican population to cancer. The genetic basis of known disparities in Puerto Rican Hispanics, which include different prevalence rates of certain types of cancer, can only be uncovered through access to these biospecimens. This partnership is uniquely positioned to fulfill this need. In fact, the U56-funded TPC already provides basic and clinical Partnership investigators with a centralized mechanism to collect, store, and process human tissues following standardized protocols. Because multi-parameter characterization of collected biospecimens will be required for the translation of experimental research findings to the clinic, a decision was made early on to utilize caBIG¿'s biorepository management tool, caTissue Suite, to collect and store associated data, which will facilitate the correlation of important clinical-pathological data with research results, while preserving patient confidentiality. PSM is the only cancer research center in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, or Latin America to be connected to caBIG. Extending this practice to multiple tumor types, normal tissues, and fluid specimens would represent a leap to the next level of sophistication. Efforts are in place to ensure that tissue banking and information storage procedures are conducted using the highest standards in the field and are also attuned to other biobanking efforts across the country via participation in GMaP/BMaP (MCC and PSM are partners in Region 3). It is envisioned that the U54-funded, Hispanic-specific TPC will foster increased collaborations among the Partnership institutions and with other institutions, and will facilitate the application of novel molecular techniques to solving cancer health disparities involving Puerto Rican Hispanics (living on the island or in the mainland) and other Hispanics living in the US. In addition, this TPC constitutes a valuable asset for the recruitment of cancer researchers to the PSM-MCC Partnership.