title: Tissues from population-based cancer registries: a novel approach to increasing research potential.
abstract: Population-based cancer registries, such as those included in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results (SEER) Program, offer tremendous research potential beyond traditional surveillance activities. We describe the expansion of SEER registries to gather formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue from cancer patients on a population basis. Population-based tissue banks have the advantage of providing an unbiased sampling frame for evaluating the public health impact of genes or protein targets that may be used for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes in defined communities. Such repositories provide a unique resource for testing new molecular classification schemes for cancer, validating new biologic markers of malignancy, prognosis and progression, assessing therapeutic targets, and measuring allele frequencies of cancer-associated genetic polymorphisms or germline mutations in representative samples. The assembly of tissue microarrays will allow for the use of rapid, large-scale protein-expression profiling of tumor samples while limiting depletion of this valuable resource. Access to biologic specimens through SEER registries will provide researchers with demographic, clinical, and risk factor information on cancer patients with assured data quality and completeness. Clinical outcome data, such as disease-free survival, can be correlated with previously validated prognostic markers. Furthermore, the anonymity of the study subject can be protected through rigorous standards of confidentiality. SEER-based tissue resources represent a step forward in true, population-based tissue repositories of tumors from US patients and may serve as a foundation for molecular epidemiology studies of cancer in this country.
authors.affiliation: Etiology Program, Hawaii Tumor Registry, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA. marc@crch.hawaii.edu
authors.forename: Marc T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: Brenda Y
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hewitt
authors.forename: Charles F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.forename: Timothy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Coté
authors.forename: Henry F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Frierson
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Moskaluk
authors.forename: Jeffrey L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Killeen
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cozen
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Key
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Clegg
authors.forename: Marsha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reichman
authors.forename: Benjamin F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Hankey
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Edwards
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D018426:SEER Program; D014015:Tissue Banks; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins