National breast cancer tissue bank established

Breast cancer researchers and health-service agencies in NSW have formed a consortium to establish a national tissue bank, containing annotated tissues from breast cancer patients, as resource for Australian researchers.

The tissue bank, which be set up at Westmead Hospital's Millennium Institute, will maintain samples donated by newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in cryogenic storage at designated sites.

Each sample will be identified by an anonymous, coded entry in a database, ensuring patient privacy.

Subject to ethical approval, breast-cancer researchers around Australia will be able to access samples for genetic and other research, and correlate their results with detailed clinical records of cancer type, grade (degree of malignancy), the patient's personal treatment history, and its outcome.

Assoc Prof Christine Clarke, director of Westmead's Breast Cancer Institute, will head up the new tissue bank, in which the Cancer Institute of NSW is an equal partner.

All newly diagnosed breast-cancer patients in NSW will be invited to donate tissue samples from their cancer.

Breast cancer is said to be the most common cancer in Australian women, with 10,000 new cases diagnosed nationally every year, and it is the most common cause of cancer death.

Clarke said the limited availability of breast cancer tissue samples annoted with clinical data, hampers Australian investigators' efforts to compare the efficacy of different treatment regimes, investigate the genesis and progression of breast cancers, and identify new targets for chemotherapy.

Her Westmead research group was awarded a Large Project Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council to establish the tissue bank. The National Breast Cancer Foundation, and the NSW government, through its Cancer Institute of NSW, are also supporting the project.

The tissue bank will be administered by a panel comprising Dr Clark, Assoc Prof John Boyages, Cancer Institute NSW chief cancer officer Prof Jim Bishop, NHMRC representative Prof Ron Trent, and recent breast cancer patient Debbie Castle, who was diagnosed a year ago at age 33.

Clarke described the tissue bank as a "simple, yet vital research tool" that will allow cancer researchers to apply their scientific knowledge directly to real patient data, to improve current knowledge of how and why breast cancer develops, and fast-track development of better diagnostics and personalised treatment regimes.

"Ultimately, it will also enhance collaboration between cancer researchers and clinicians, both in Australia and around the world, and serve as a model for the construction of similar banks of tissue from other common cancers," she said.

It would be the first time in Australia, and one of the few times in the world, that researchers have teamed up with patients, public and private funding bodies, clinicians and health services to form a united front against breast cancer, she said.