Simona di Martino1, Enzo Gallo2, Chiara Mandoj3, Celeste Accetta1, Ana Maria Arteni Brindusa1, Matteo Pallocca4, Valentina Laquintana1, Giovanni Cigliana3, Paolo Visca2, Edoardo Pescarmona2, Mirella Marino2
1Department of Pathology, (Tissue Biobank) IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy;
2Department of Pathology, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy;
3UOSD Clinical Pathology, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy;
4Institute of Experimental Endocrinology and Oncology, National Research Council, Naples, Italy
Correspondence to: Simona di Martino, Dr.ssa, PhD. Department of Pathology, (Tissue Biobank) IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144 Rome, Italy. Email: simona.dimartino@ifo.it; Mirella Marino, MD. Department of Pathology, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144 Rome, Italy. Email: mirella.marino@ifo.it.
Background: Oncological biobanks provide a powerful tool to collect, preserve and distribute human tissues, tumoral or normal, as well as biological fluids, associated to their demographical and clinical data. The purpose of biobanks is to implement basic oncological, clinical and translational research. At the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, a Biobank (BBIRE) was established since 2013/2014. Over the time a precise definition of biobank activity, of its structural organization and standard operative procedures have been established, allowing the Biobank being certified according to the rule UNI EN ISO 9001:2015. Moreover, an ongoing implementation should allow the accreditation of the Biobank according to the European rule UNI CEI EN ISO 20387:2021. The BBIRE refers for the human tissues (tumors and normal tissues) to the Pathology Department, and for the body fluids to the clinical pathology laboratory.
Methods: Human tumor tissues (T) as well as normal (N) control tissues and body fluids (Body Fluid) are collected according to internationally established quality standards in accordance with the ethical rules of the biobank. All patients signed a written informed consent. Fresh frozen tumor tissues and normal counterparts are collected and preserved in specific and restricted access laboratory areas. In particular tissues are collected under the “umbrella” of approved projects, however, spontaneous biobanking activity is performed for rare tumors. Representative tissue sections are systematically digitally scanned to foster the creation of a digital pathology (DP) archive.
Results: The BBIRE has recruited more than 796 patients came from Thoracic Surgery. Specifically, in the tissue biobank 7,195 tissue samples from 796 patients were collected, of which 3,577 samples of snap frozen tumor tissue, 2,840 samples of adjacent normal snap frozen tissue. Moreover, we collected 142 samples of preserved tumor tissues in optimal cutting temperature (OCT) and 54 samples of adjacent normal tissue stored in OCTs. We also collected 76 pleural effusions to generate primary cultures. Thoracic solid tumors biobanked included lung cancer, thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) and malignant mesothelioma specimens. Primary cell cultures/cell lines of mesothelioma and thymoma were established and frozen for future projects. Biobank-based gene-expression profile TET studies were published in recent years.
Conclusions: The integrate data generated by image/omics analyses contribute to the development of precision medicine as well as of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, with the bioinformatics support. The BBIRE is member of European research network of Biobanks and Biomolecular Resources (BBMRI-ERIC) participates with European groups (EORTC-European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer) to large-scale multicenter projects.
Keywords: Rare tumors; biobanking; artificial intelligence (AI); Standard operating procedures; OMICS
