Human Tissue Sample Blog

Biospecimens such as tissue and blood samples are critical resources for advancing genomic research into the many types of  cancer, Alzheimer's disease, immune disorders, and other diseases. Researchers continue to make strides in unlocking the genetic alterations associated with specific cancers as well as advancing personalized medicine via the DNA sequencing and analysis of a patient's particular cancer tumor. Advanced sequencing techniques now allow researchers to obtain huge amounts of data on the genetic changes that may trigger cancer or other diseases.

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) is one of the more recognized large-scale genomic research efforts aimed at collecting and analyzing a wide range of carefully-sourced specimens for studying cancer genetics and potential treatments. TCGA has a rigorous set of requirements when seeking samples for its decade-long genomic atlas collection. One of its requirements is that TCGA researchers must have a tumor sample that is paired with a normal secondary sample, preferably a blood specimen, to serve as a normal comparison with the tumor's genome.

Major investments in basic science have created an opportunity for significant progress in clinical medicine. Researchers have discovered hundreds of genes that harbor variations contributing to human illness, identified genetic variability in patients' responses to dozens of treatments, and begun to target the molecular causes of some diseases. In addition, scientists are developing and using diagnostic tests based on genetics or other molecular mechanisms to better predict patients' responses to targeted therapy.(1)

Biomarkers and surrogate endpoints have an increasingly important role in both cancer research and clinical practice. Biomarkers can be used to assess prognosis and to predict how individual patients will respond to specific treatments, whereas surrogate endpoints potentially enable the effectiveness of new interventions to be assessed more rapidly, and at times with greater accuracy, than classic endpoints (such as survival) in clinical trials. (1)

A biomarker is defined as a quantifiable indicator of a biological, pathological, or therapeutic response process occurring in the human body. It is found in blood, other body fluids and tissues and is particularly helpful for researchers to understand the normal and abnormal processes. Oncology research in particular, focuses on identifying and measuring certain protein and molecular expressions that are associated with neoplasia.