Geo-location of oncological diseases in the extra-urban areas of naples and creation of territorial biobanks: An important tool to study potential connections between environmental factors and cancer

Abstract

Many areas of the Campania region of Italy are more frequently at risk of neoplastic diseases due to environmental factors. However, the results of epidemiological studies, although numerous and detailed, do not explain tumor pathogenesis mechanisms in relation to the contribution of exposure to environmental pollutants. The Oncological Biobank of the G. Pascale Foundation (BBI) centralizes the collection and storage of biomaterials, both healthy and pathological human tissues, from urban and extra-urban areas of Naples, associating them with clinicopathological characteristics (type of tumor, histological type, grading, immunohistochemical and molecular profile, etc.). Geo-location of tumor samples is made by an IT platform in which demographic and clinical data are systematically uploaded. For the extra-urban areas of Naples, our experience of tumor sample geolocation highlighted cancer types with high impact of environmental pollutants as being lung, gastric and bladder cancer. In this mini-review, we underline that the possibility of specifically selecting tumor samples in circumscribed territories may allow targeted studies to verify potential connections between environmental factors and cancer. Moreover, the collection of biological fluids (serum, saliva, urine) from healthy individuals from specific areas may be a useful tool for the research of specific genetic polymorphisms linked to individual susceptibility.