Clinical and biological samples : opportunities and challenges for translational research   The first purpose of this talk is to provide ton non clinical researchers some main technical, ethical and reglementary issues for their access to biological samples and especially tumoral tissues which are stored  in pathology departments or tumor banks.  The second one is to explain to scientists that their project will not be successful if the sample collection is not associated with relevant clinical and biopathological annotations Finally, financial and ethical problems will be discussed as cancer biobanks funding becomes problematic and there is also an urgent need to refine their policy considering the most frequent tumor subtypes which may be available in several biobanks with redundancy and the access of researchers to routine diagnostic samples or rare tumor subtypes which are not primarily stored for research but that can be qualified for research by an Ethical Committee. Samples collected in daily practice are of diverse origins and subtypes:  fresh tissues, cell suspension, fixed biopsies, surgical specimens. All of them may be altered by adverse preanalytical factors such as cold ischemia, delayed fixation or freezing times which are not always known parameters. Therefore, research collection can be set up with knowledge of these parameters and alternative procedures such as RNA later prior to freezing. Accreditation of pathology department will also make possible to limit preanalytical artefacts which are critical according to the tissue subtype and technique used for analysis with robust and more sensitive ones. The research collection needs to be associated with basic clinical and pathological parameters but all of them are only available when a clinical database with evolutive features is designed and maintained. Despite the efforts of these clinical databases, the life of the sample needs to be managed independently at the biopathology level. In fact there are two different situations:  one is when the cancer biobank and the biopathology department directly involved in the research project. Another seen at the Bordeaux University Hospital is when more than 10 research collection are setup in the context of regional, national or international project with centralized management and funding of the clinical database as well as of the scientific advisory board for access to the samples.  Despite the presence of such clinical database, the scientific project cannot be conducted without a specific reanalysis of biopathological data owing to the diversity of tumour histological and genetic subtypes, especially when changes in the classification of the tumor subtypes (lung, liver, lymphoma for example) have occurred. Both clinicians and scientists are not aware that their project will not only need funding for access to tissue but that they will need to involve an expert biopathologist in their project. Whatever the tumor bank subtype, the process for storing, management and sample access are regulated through certified procedure NFS 96900 in France. Finally, the access to sample is restricted by ethical and regulatory procedures for which the tumor bank is not in charge but has together with the researcher to cope with. Cette présentation a été donnée dans le cadre du BRIO SIRIC scientific day 3 organisé annuellement par le SIRIC BRIO et qui a pour but de réunir tous les acteurs du SIRIC BRIO et plus largement de la cancérologie à Bordeaux.
Mot(s) clés libre(s) : cancer, Oncologie, Thérapie, Recherche