posters International Association for Breast Cancer Research 2014

The Australian Breast Cancer Tissue Bank: A core resource for translational research (#54)

Jane E. Carpenter 1 , Mythily Mariasegaram 1 , ABCTB Investigators 1 , Christine L. Clarke 1 2
  1. Australian Breast Cancer Tissue Bank, Centre for Cancer Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, Sydney Medical School - University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Centre for Cancer Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, Sydney Medical School - University of Sydney , Sydney, NSW, Australia

The Australian Breast Cancer Tissue Bank (ABCTB) was established in 2006 as an open access not-for-profit resource dedicated to providing material to national and international research communities undertaking breast cancer research. Donors are consented according to standard ethical principles for use of their material for unspecified future research. To date the ABCTB has collected a cohort consisting of over 6,000 donors, and has a substantial collection of formalin fixed, and cryopreserved tissue, blood samples and derivatives and associated clinical data, including treatment and longitudinal follow-up.

The ABCTB operates via a hub and spoke structure with centralised overall management occurring at the Westmead Millennium Institute with collection centres distributed across NSW, ACT, QLD and WA. All collection centres follow common Standard Operating Procedures. Central processing activities and distribution of materials to researchers are undertaken within the hub. Biobank governance is via Operational, Executive and Management groups and independent oversight is provided by an external Advisory Panel. The ABCTB follows International Best Practice Guidelines for Biobanking and participates in national and international quality assurance activities.

Researcher applications to access materials are assessed by an Access Committee and an external review panel, and the ABCTB has developed an online application system for researchers and reviewers at http://www.abctb.org.au. Since 2008 over 10,000 samples have been made available to research projects.

Novel IT solutions have been developed by the ABCTB which include:-
1. an audit system to ensure accuracy of key data fields within the ABCTB database
2. a digital tool to take snap shots of digital images so it can be made available on the ABCTB website for researchers.

The types of research supported by the ABCTB include basic cellular mechanisms, biomarker discovery, risk assessment and cancer progression and outcome. ABCTB also contributes biospecimens and data to international consortium studies.