Molecular and Clinical Pathology Research Laboratory (MaCH R) Tumour Bank

Tissue Types

The Molecular and Clinical Pathology Research Laboratory (MaCH R) Tumour Bank contains collections of a wide variety of tumour tissue and where possible matched non-tumour tissue. Tumour types available include:

Colorectal        Kidney            Liver

Soft Tissue       Brain              Breast

Lung            Head&Neck      Stomach

Bladder           Testicle           Mouth

Auricular Nerve (Acoustic Neuroma) 

Lymph Node      Bone           Parotid

Pancreas            Skin           Prostate

Pituitary Tissue           Adrenal Tissue

Small Intestine

Oesophagus (Gastro - Oesoph Junc) 

NB: Small numbers of other tumour types may be available. Please contact the MaCH R Tumour Bank for exact availability.

Sample Types and Preparation

Majority of tissues are collected in the operating theatre to reduce the impact of RNA degradation during the time lag between freezing of tissues and removal of the specimen from patients. Difficult specimens with issues of resection margin are brought by Tumour Bank staff on ice to Anatomical Pathology lab for a pathologist to examine and sample for Tumour Bank. We aim to freeze the samples as soon as possible from the surgical resection of tumour to ensure preservation of RNA integrity.

Tissues are collected in such a way that it will not interfere with surgery or subsequent pathological analysis of the specimen. In any case where the pathologist feel there is potential diagnostic materials within the samples collected, we will return the tissues to Pathology Department upon request for further examination.

Biospecimen samples available:

Tissues (standard size = 5X5x2mm if possible; biopsy samples can be collected upon request)

• Fresh frozen cube of solid tissue (snap freeze in liquid nitrogen) stored in -80°C freezer
• OCT preserved tissue stored in -80°C freezer
• Formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue
• PAXgene® (PreAnalytiX) fixed paraffin embedded tissue

Where possible, matching non-tumour tissues are also collected.

Blood

• Serum (500ul aliquot) stored in -80°C freezer
• EDTA-plasma (500ul aliquot) stored in -80°C freezer
• Blood pellet (no DMSO) stored in -80°C freezer
• PBMC in DMSO stored in liquid nitrogen
• PAXgene® Blood DNA
• GenPlates (GenVault system)

De-identified demographic and pathological data is also available.

Other services available on site within the MaCH R Laboratory include:

• Tissue Microarrays
• General histology
• Immunohistochemistry
• In-situ hybridisation
• Virtual microscopy and whole slide imaging (Nanozoomer slide scanner)
• Laser Capture Microdissection
• PCR
• Gene Expression Profile Analysis (Affymetrix platform)
• Next Generation Sequencing (SOLiD™ system)
• High speed sorting (BD FACS ARIA II platform)
• Online database (Distiller)