Biobanking toward cancer cure
Cancer remains as one of the most dreaded diseases of our time. Fortunately, new and better treatments are now emerging as a result of intensive cancer research.
Today, one of the most valuable resources for cancer research is a biobank. We all have grown up with the concept of a bank as a place where we deposit our money to “save for the future.” This certainly is true as well for a biobank, where we can deposit our cells, tissues, and blood, so that it can be used to invent new ways of detecting and treating diseases like cancer.
By definition, a biological bank or “biobank” is a long-term storage and conservation facility for biological specimens. It is created primarily to help researchers develop personalized medicine, innovative drugs and other therapies. A biobank consist of 1) the biologic materials that are collected, processed, and stored for long periods of time, and 2) the database that contains the information and data of each collected sample.
Over time, as more specimens are collected and archived, researchers can analyze and compare the actual molecular characteristics, and identify what went wrong with these cells and tissues such that they became diseased. Once they discover this, they can now formulate ways of detecting the disease using what are known as biomarkers. They can then develop treatments that target only the abnormal molecules of the diseased cells. The end result is a treatment that is personalized, targeted and innovative, and hopefully has fewer side effects.
During the past years, biobanks have been established in first world countries contributing to the current large flux of cutting edge researches that have leapfrogged new diagnostic approaches and therapeutic interventions. However, in third world countries like the Philippines, the concept of biobanking is a fairly new field. This is understandable because of its stringent financial and technical requirements that cost a lot of money and resources.
Biobanking also involves delicate procedures: There should be a smooth flow of biospecimen collection, processing, storage, inventory and distribution of biological material. Both the quality of the samples and the storage processes are very important. The biological material must be processed in a manner that preserves its integrity or “freshness” so that all of the specimens’ unique characteristics are unchanged and as pristine as possible.
In cancer research, a biobank is a rich resource for biotechnology for conducting genomic, proteomic, and metabolomicbased researches, molecular epidemiology and translational studies, molecular diagnostic and therapeutics, identifying drug targets and biomarker, and drug discovery. It thus offers great potential in our quest for battling the dreaded disease that is cancer.
Having been at the forefront of cancer care and research in the Philippines for the past many years, St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City is inaugurating the country’s first Human Cancer Biobank this week. It is a facility that features a systematized collection and archiving of biological specimens from willing cancer patients, establishing an integrated and comprehensive database of clinical, laboratory, and molecular information from these patients. The aim of St. Luke’s Human Cancer Biobank is to be the center of a centralized and standardized sample collection where a more efficient use and professional method of storage of resources ensures high quality research output.
The carefully collected and handled specimens from cancer, such as blood and other body fluids, tumor cells and tissues, are to be retrieved from cancer patients through biopsy, surgery or blood extraction.
The St. Luke’s Human Cancer Biobank Research Center preserves specimen in their original state they are taken thereby ensuring the accuracy of analyses and the superior quality of molecular and cellular substances. It is equipped with an electronic specimen tracking and inventory system and a high level of security system to guarantee confidentiality of sensitive patient information and prevent unauthorized access to them. Each specimen is enrolled with a unique clinical and ancillary data in a robust and secured electronic database through a management partnership between clinicians and IT specialists.
These valuable specimens are stored and preserved at ultralow temperatures in biofreezers or liquid nitrogen tanks for future use in research. They will be vital in understanding the biological mechanisms and molecular bases of cancer development, response to treatment, and its prevention. Tumor biomarkerbased diagnostics can then be designed, and personalized medicine, novel drugs and therapies against cancer, developed through regulated clinical trials.
Dr. MARCELO SB IMASA is a Medical Oncologist at St. Luke’s Medical Center – Quezon City and the Co-Chair of the St. Luke’s Human Cancer Biobank Project. He finished his medical degree at the UP College of Medicine, residency in Internal Medicine at UP-PGH and fellowship in Medical Oncology at St. Luke’s Medical Center.