The Louisiana Cancer Research Center (LCRC) recently welcomed Douglas Stewart, MD, senior investigator in the cancer genetics branch at the National Cancer

Institute, who presented "The Fault in Our Genes: Using Biobanks to Quantify Cancer Risk" as part of the LCRC Distinguished Speakers Series.  The LCRC operates one of the state's largest biobanks, providing biological samples from cancer patients, such as blood, tissue, and other specimens, for research.

LCRC Biospecimen Core Lab Manager Adrienne Woods, MPH, MB, said she was particularly interested to hear Dr. Stewart's comments on the genotype-first approach, which involves using biobanks to identify individuals with specific genetic variants, then working backward to determine their clinical symptoms or phenotypes. The major benefits of these studies in individuals with increased genetic cancer risk are: earlier identification of high-risk individuals, more effective and earlier screening strategies, systematic genetic testing and family benefit, and reduction of health disparities, among others.

Though this approach has yet to be implemented at the LCRC biobank, Woods said the LCRC biobank is equipped to work with researchers on this increasingly popular approach.

The LCRC houses over 250,000 samples from 7,000 patients collected over the past 20 years. LCRC investigators may access the banked biospecimens and corresponding data after successfully petitioning the Institutional Review Board of their home institution and filing an application through the LCRC website.  The LCRC Tissue Utilization Review Committee reviews each request to ensure the tissues will be used for the stated research purpose and the samples were collected with patient-informed consent for specific, nonprofit uses.

The LCRC biobank was confounded in 2006 by Arnold H. Zea, PhD, a Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, Parasitology at LSUHSC and at the LSU-LCMC Health Cancer Center in New Orleans, together with Krzysztof Moroz, MD, Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Services in the Department of Pathology at Tulane University School of Medicine.

Click here to learn more about the LCRC Biospecimen Core Lab

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