THE INFRASTRUCTURE BEHIND BIOBANKING IN QUEBEC

Cancer research aims to better understand the appearance, development and dissemination of this disease. Some types of cancer research focus on the identification of markers that could be used in early diagnosis or that may help define the prognosis of the patient. These markers can also help identify specific types of tumours that are more responsive to targeted therapies. Other types of cancer research may focus on the discovery of new treatments or combinations of treatments, while studying their mechanisms of action and how cancer cells may develop resistance.

In order to carry out these types of research, access to high caliber biological material is indispensable; this is the origin of the RRCancer. For close to 20 years now, the RRCancer network has been providing researchers with the tools they need to adhere to the Best Biobanking Practices and guiding them through every step of the process. In this age of precision medicine, where large initiatives aim to pool samples, the harmonization of practices ensures the standardization of resources across the different centres.

The banking steps include:

• Registration and certification;
• Staff training (ethics, confidentiality, privacy, technical, etc.) via our partner Biobank Resource Center (RCTB);
• The internal organization (Management Framework for a Tissue and Data Biobank);
• Development of an information and consent form;
• The establishment of standard operating procedures for the collection, processing, processing of biological material into derivatives and storage in accordance with the requirements of the Canadian Tissue Bank Network (CTRNet);
• The use of ATiM software to maintain the inventory of biological material and its derivatives;
• Collection and storage of clinical and research data in ATiM and Oncology Data Archiving System (SARDO);
• Reflective sharing of biological material and associated data (MRF).