Processing and Cryopreservation of Blood, Cancer Tissues, and Cancer Cells for Viable Biobanking.

Biorepositories of fresh frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues have been foundational to many molecular cancer research studies. Collections of these materials, however, do not enable the establishment of short-term cultures, cell lines, or patient-derived xenograft models for functional studies. Also, intact dissociated cells that are required for some single-cell analyses cannot be obtained from these material types. Adding viable tumor banking to the repertoire of routine cancer biobanking would increase the value of samples collected. This chapter outlines procedures for processing and storing blood and tissue specimens viably in order to expand the future utility of the samples collected. We provide practical tips that can be used by banks and other researchers seeking to incorporate the cryopreservation of viable materials as part of their overall biobanking strategies.