About the Biosample Repository

Fox Chase Cancer Center has developed a Biosample Repository Facility (BRF) dedicated to the collection and distribution of human biosamples (i.e., blood, urine and tumor tissue) for scientific research. In addition, the BRF supports the collection of personal and family cancer history data.

The BRF is overseen by the Director, Dr. Denise Connolly and an interdivisional Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC), with day-to-day staff supervision provided by the Facility Manager.

How is this done?

The White and Red cells are separated from the plasma

Individuals attending a clinic at Fox Chase as well as relatives, employees and friends of FCCC are invited to sign an informed consent and contribute a blood sample, complete family history, risk factor and demographic questionnaires.

Donated blood samples are separated into the following components: whole blood, plasma, serum, lymphocytes and red blood cells.  Lymphocytes are isolated and frozen in liquid nitrogen for future transformation or nucleic acid preparation. DNA is isolated from a small portion of donated blood.

Participants having surgery at FCCC may consent to donate tissue. Donated tissue is reviewed by the Department of Pathology prior to release to the BRF. Only excess tissue that is not needed for patient care is collected and stored by the BRF. Tissues are fixed in formalin and embedded in paraffin and/or snap frozen and stored for later use. Formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue specimens may be further utilized to create tissue microarrays (TMAs) in the BRF.

As specimens are collected and processed, they are also entered into an electronic database. This database is used to track sample type, quantity, storage location and distribution. The facility also supports special requests for the processing of human biosamples as part of grants awarded to individual FCCC investigators.
For more information about the Biosample Repository Facility at Fox Chase Cancer Center, call (toll free) 1-888-831-6466 and ask for a recruitment coordinator.

Access to Biosamples by Researchers

In response to announcement (CA-00-025; P30 CA06927S2), the Fox Chase Cancer Center's Biosample Repository (BR) and Tumor Bank Facility (TBF) is making blood specimens (i.e., whole blood, plasma, platelet-rich plasma, platelet homogenates, red blood cells, leukocytes, lymphoblastoid cell lines, and DNA isolated from leukocytes) and tumor tissues (i.e., multi-tissue microarrays and tumor DNAs) collected by our facilities available for research. Request for blood and tissue will be reviewed by a panel of scientists and ranked. Priority will be given to those investigators with current NIGH/NCI funding, but will be made available as recommended by the internal and external advisor committees.
Access to Tissue and Blood Samples