Bank project. Andrew von Eschenbach announced plans for a tumor tissue bank.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI), in collaboration with a private foundation, plans to launch a national tissue bank to facilitate access of researchers to samples of cancerous tissue . But the National Network of biological samples (NBN), as it is called, has yet to attract funding, and some researchers doubt that there is enough scientific interest in the collection proposed to justify the investment .
Many institutions, including large academic cancer centers, banks of home textiles containing tumor samples. But standards for collection and storage of tissue vary, and doctors sometimes have difficulty having access to samples from other centers than their own. NCI Director Andrew von Eschenbach announced plans to change that on July 11 at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, DC In collaboration with the National Dialogue on Cancer - a foundation that von Eschenbach helped found in 1998, and whose executive committee, he remains - NCI brought together academics, industry representatives, and activists to help coordinate the launch of the tissue bank
it much more needs to decide :. if the NBN will include all cancers, where it will stay, and above all, how it will be funded. NCI has not committed to pay the bill; Later this month, the design team NBN - under the auspices of the National Dialogue on Cancer - meet to discuss how to raise funds. "I worry about it," says Carolyn Compton, a pathologist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, which is to help the development of the NBN plan. Other NCI tissue banks supported scramble for funds, Comptom notes.
This does not only concern. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, wonders if there will be enough interest for a national tissue bank; often, researchers must work closely with surgeons and pathologists to collect the samples they need, he said. Varmus is also concerned about the role of the National Dialogue on Cancer, a private group, including former President George Bush and his wife, which aims to end the suffering and death from cancer. Von Eschenbach's role in the dialogue has raised eyebrows in the past ( Science , 24 May 02, 1395).
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National Dialogue on Cancer
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