Meredith Anna J, Slotty Alex, Matzke Lise, Babinszky Sindy, Watson Peter H
1 Office of Biobank Education and Research , Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, BC Cancer Agency and UBC, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada .
2 Tumour Tissue Repository, Trev and Joyce Deeley Research Centre , BC Cancer Agency, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada .
Biopreserv Biobank. 2015 Oct;13(5):356-62. doi: 10.1089/bio.2014.0081. Epub 2015 Sep 29.
Human biospecimens are used in 40% of cancer research publications. Tumor biobanks are an important source for these biospecimens and support both prospective and retrospective research studies. Supporting retrospective research requires tumor tissue biobanks to accrue an adequate inventory, or stock, of cases comprising tumor biospecimens and associated treatment and outcomes data. We propose a model to establish appropriate targets for stocks of frozen tissue biospecimens in tumor biobanks, sufficient to support cancer research needs. Our model considers national levels of investment in academic cancer research relative to research use of cases described in publication output, and scales this to the local context of the BC Cancer Agency Tumour Tissue Repository (TTR) as an example. Adjustment factors are then applied to correct for the primary intended user base of the biobank, as well as variables intrinsic to all biobanking operations and case collection. On this basis we estimate a current target stock for the TTR of approximately 4500 cases. Local research demand derived from case release data can then be applied to fine-tune accrual targets and refine the biobank's relative portfolio of cases from different tumor sites. We recognize that current targets will need regular remodeling as research demands change over time and that our initial model has some limitations related to the need to extrapolate from available research and biobank utilization data, and does not incorporate biospecimen/case contributions within the context of a network. However, we believe the lack of models to estimate inventory targets for tumor biobanks and to better balance research demand with biospecimen supply, contributes to the hesitation of funders to provide support, and also the problems of sustainability faced by many biobanks. Creating tangible inventory targets will improve biobank efficiency, sustainability, and may also encourage increased and stable funding.
40%的癌症研究出版物中使用了人类生物样本。肿瘤生物样本库是这些生物样本的重要来源，支持前瞻性和回顾性研究。支持回顾性研究要求肿瘤组织生物样本库积累足够的病例库存，包括肿瘤生物样本以及相关的治疗和结果数据。我们提出了一个模型，用于为肿瘤生物样本库中冷冻组织生物样本的库存设定适当目标，以满足癌症研究需求。我们的模型考虑了国家对学术性癌症研究的投资水平与出版物中描述的病例研究使用情况的关系，并以不列颠哥伦比亚癌症机构肿瘤组织库（TTR）为例，将其应用于当地情况。然后应用调整因子来校正生物样本库的主要目标用户群体，以及所有生物样本库操作和病例收集所固有的变量。在此基础上，我们估计TTR目前的目标库存约为4500例。然后可以根据病例发放数据得出的当地研究需求，对积累目标进行微调，并优化生物样本库中来自不同肿瘤部位病例的相对组合。我们认识到，随着研究需求随时间变化，当前目标需要定期重新建模，而且我们的初始模型存在一些局限性，即需要从现有的研究和生物样本库利用数据进行推断，并且没有纳入网络背景下的生物样本/病例贡献。然而，我们认为，缺乏估计肿瘤生物样本库库存目标以及更好地平衡研究需求与生物样本供应的模型，导致资助者在提供支持时犹豫不决，也导致许多生物样本库面临可持续性问题。制定切实可行的库存目标将提高生物样本库的效率和可持续性，还可能鼓励增加和稳定的资金投入。
