In 2010, the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers Executive Council announced a $5 million initiative that will significantly expand the center’s tissue-banking capabilities. The commitment will fund the creation of the Tissue Resource for Research (TRR), a state-of-the-art bank to collect and store tissues that will be used for vital research into breast and gynecologic cancers.
“The TRR will help us stay true to a key part of Dana- Farber’s mission, which is to ensure that discoveries made in the laboratory are quickly translated into clinical applications that can help patients,” says J. Dirk Iglehart, MD, director of the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers. “Through this effort, we’ll be able to collect a diverse range of tissue samples that will be readily available to cancer investigators. It will help accelerate discovery in women’s cancers.”
Staff members working in the TRR will work to collect malignant and non-malignant samples from consenting patients with breast or gynecologic cancers, and use those samples to identify gene mutations and proteins, and examine genetic profiles.
The TRR will be closely integrated with Dana-Farber’s Clinical Research Information System, a powerful software application that can collect, store, and access clinical, treatment, and outcomes data. Through this system, the tissue resources collected and maintained in the TRR will be fully linked to all patient data, providing a powerful tool for researchers.
Courtesy of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
