A biobank of living breast tissue is helping researchers Mayo Clinic to identify ways in which carriers of certain genes may be at increased risk of developing breast cancer.
Mayo Clinic is a non-profit organization dedicated to innovating clinical practice, education and research.
In a recent study, biobanking was found to be of great value in understanding the influence that the BRCA1 gene may have on the increased risk of breast cancer in women who are carriers of the gene.
The organization’s research team used samples from the biobank to validate their findings. So explains Nagarajan Kannan, MD, director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer and Stem Cell Biological Laboratory.
He adds that understanding how the biobank works Living Breast Biobank approving this study means understanding its far-reaching purpose and what makes it unique.
How does the biological bank work?
The biobank now collects samples across all of the organization’s sites and includes any genes associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.
At its headquarters in Rochester, Minnesota, the samples also include breast tissue from cosmetic surgeries, including live male breast tissue.
“Accessing living male breast tissue to study the origin of male breast cancer has been a significant challenge, and we have overcome it,” says Kannan.
He adds that one in a hundred cases of breast cancer occurs in men, but the male mammary gland and breast cancer in men continue to be understudied.
Breast samples for the biobank are taken on the day the patient is operated on. They are then taken to a central processing unit in Dr. Kannan’s laboratory.
“It is very intense work. Each sample is obtained and processed on site, so it takes about a day and a half to generate what we call epithelial stem cell-rich tissue organoids,” she said. He adds that these are tissue units that still have self-healing stem cells.
“It is possible to screw up samples during processing stages due to small errors, so there has been a high degree of optimization of the methodology that has helped streamline this process,” he explains.
Its importance
The specialist says many junior doctors and technologists have collectively contributed more than 10,000 hours to obtain, process and store these stem cell-rich samples.
The biobank currently has around 500 patient samples; each includes a survey of approximately 150 questions from participating patients.
The survey provides information about other factors that can contribute to a high risk of developing cancer, such as:
- Diet.
- Lifestyle.
- The genetic.
- Medical and family history.
