Tissue Core
Co-Director - Peter R. Carroll, MD
Co-Director - Jeffry Simko, MD, pHD
Overview
To date, the SPORE's Tissue Core has collected tissue specimens from over 675 patients, a collection rate of approximately 240 specimens per year. In the vast majority of cases, at least one gram each of both benign and tumor tissue has been obtained and frozen for future use. In addition, urine and blood samples from over 425 patients have been collected. Serum and leukocytes are separated from the blood and stored at -80 C. Slides from all frozen and paraffin-embedded tissue specimens are made and reviewed by the pathologist for characterization and quality-control purposes; Gleason grade, percent of tumor, benign glandular tissue, and high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) are all recorded.
In addition, more than 150 biopsy specimens from patients with androgen-independent prostate cancer have also been collected and distributed fresh to researchers.
An inventory of tissue specimens (stripped of patient identifiers) has been entered into a relational database, which is maintained by the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Informatics Core. This database contains information on over 1000 specimens, and includes histopathologic data on tumor stage and grade. Specimen identification numbers in this database can be linked to the Clinical Database in order to identify appropriate specimens for study. Merger of the tissue database into the Clinical Database is currently being arranged.
Tissue requests by investigators are submitted to the Tissue Utilization Committee for review of project feasibility, priority, and IRB approval, and once approval of the Tissue Utilization Committee is obtained, tissues are distributed.
Two tissue microarrays are currently available to researchers: a 129-sample array of prospectively collected prostate tumors and a 164-core microarray of archival tumors with long-term follow-up.
The Tissue Core routinely provides SPORE investigators with histology services, including frozen and paraffin sectioning, preparation of cell buttons, cytospin slides, H&E, and other histochemical stains. Core personnel are also available to help train technologists in other SPORE labs in routine histologic techniques as needed.
The Tissue Core participates in the development of protocols for new antibodies, performs immunohistochemical stains, and the Core Pathologist reviews and interprets stained slides for the research projects.
