Human research tissue banks in the UK National Health Service: laws, ethics, controls and constraints.

National Health Service (NHS) histopathology laboratories are ideally placed to bank cadaveric and surplus surgical tissue to supply the needs of research organisations, whether in the NHS, universities or the commercial sector. This review outlines the constraints to setting up a human tissue bank in an NHS histopathology laboratory, identifies the controls required and answers the question: is it ethical and legal?