Scientific and managerial premises and unresolved issues in tumour biobanking activities

Abstract

Research biobanks are organisations that collect and preserve human biological materials, according to ethical and legal rules, in order to supply researchers with high quality human specimens for scientific purposes, accompanied by as much data as possible. Disease-oriented biobanks are aimed at collecting biomaterials pertaining to specific pathological conditions, and among them are tumour biobanks. High-quality biobanking relies on several aspects, which include long-term funding, appropriate ethical and legal framework, active involvement of patients and the medical community, quality of samples and of the corresponding data, proper regulation of the procedures for distributing biomaterials, appropriate Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, networking in a national and international environment. In this essay we will focus our attention on some of these aspects, describing, in particular, the workflow and organisation of a specific type of biobank: the tumour biobank. Our analysis is based on the experience developed in the recently established Trentino Biobank (TBB), which is a paradigmatic biobanking project in Italy.