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• Ontario Tumour Bank

Ontario Tumour Bank, Canada

Objective: The Ontario Tumour Bank (OTB) is a province-wide not-for-profit biorepository and data bank focused on collection of tumour-related human biospecimens. It provides academic and industry cancer researchers with a diverse selection of high quality tumour-related specimens and data obtained directly by dedicated tumour bank staff, who follow a stringent set of procedures and ethical guidelines. Operating at state-of-the-art hospitals and cancer centres across Ontario, the Ontario Tumour Bank coordinates the collection, storage, analysis, annotation, and distribution of tumour and peripheral blood samples from over 30 disease sites. Working in collaboration with local pathologists, medical oncologists, surgeons and other hospital personnel, specially trained staff obtain patient consent, collect tissues and assemble comprehensive clinical information about each donor and the corresponding samples. The Ontario Tumour Bank has collected over 175,000 available samples representing greater than 20,000 cases. Types of samples collected include fresh-frozen tumour & matching adjacent normal, paraffin-embedded formal-fixed tissue, and cryopreserved plasma & buffy coat from peripheral blood. All tumours have a paired imaged slide for viewing pre-distribution. Enrollment utilizes a broadly-worded consent form to enable many types of research and applications. The Ontario Tumour Bank also offers derivatives from sample materials, such as Tissue Microarrays, RNA, and DNA, on request. The Ontario Tumour Bank is a program of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). Funded by the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) is an innovative translational research organization dedicated to research on the prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.