U-CAN: a prospective longitudinal collection of biomaterials and clinical information from adult cancer patients in Sweden
Creators: name: Glimelius, Bengt
name: Melin, Beatrice
name: Enblad, Gunilla
name: Alafuzoff, Irina
name: Beskow, Anna
name: Ahlström, Håkan
name: Bill-Axelson, Anna
name: Birgisson, Helgi
name: Björ, Ove
name: Per-Henrik Edqvist
name: Hansson, Tony
name: Helleday, Thomas
name: Hellman, Per
name: Henriksson, Kerstin
name: Hesselager, Göran
name: Hultdin, Magnus
name: Häggman, Michael
name: Höglund, Martin
name: Jonsson, Håkan
name: Chatarina Larsson
name: Lindman, Henrik
name: Ljuslinder, Ingrid
name: Mindus, Stephanie
name: Nygren, Peter
name: Pontén, Fredrik
name: Riklund, Katrine
name: Rosenquist, Richard
name: Sandin, Fredrik
name: Schwenk, Jochen M.
name: Stenling, Roger
name: Stålberg, Karin
name: Stålberg, Peter
name: Sundström, Christer
name: Karlsson, Camilla Thellenberg
name: Westermark, Bengt
name: Bergh, Anders
name: Claesson-Welsh, Lena
name: Palmqvist, Richard
name: Sjöblom, Tobias
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Biotechnology
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Cancer
subject: 111714 Mental Health
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Hematology
subject: 60506 Virology

description: <b>Background:</b> Progress in cancer biomarker discovery is dependent on access to high-quality biological materials and high-resolution clinical data from the same cases. To overcome current limitations, a systematic prospective longitudinal sampling of multidisciplinary clinical data, blood and tissue from cancer patients was therefore initiated in 2010 by Uppsala and Umeå Universities and involving their corresponding University Hospitals, which are referral centers for one third of the Swedish population. <b>Material and Methods:</b> Patients with cancer of selected types who are treated at one of the participating hospitals are eligible for inclusion. The healthcare-integrated sampling scheme encompasses clinical data, questionnaires, blood, fresh frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens, diagnostic slides and radiology bioimaging data. <b>Results:</b> In this ongoing effort, 12,265 patients with brain tumors, breast cancers, colorectal cancers, gynecological cancers, hematological malignancies, lung cancers, neuroendocrine tumors or prostate cancers have been included until the end of 2016. From the 6914 patients included during the first five years, 98% were sampled for blood at diagnosis, 83% had paraffin-embedded and 58% had fresh frozen tissues collected. For Uppsala County, 55% of all cancer patients were included in the cohort. <b>Conclusions:</b> Close collaboration between participating hospitals and universities enabled prospective, longitudinal biobanking of blood and tissues and collection of multidisciplinary clinical data from cancer patients in the U-CAN cohort. Here, we summarize the first five years of operations, present U-CAN as a highly valuable cohort that will contribute to enhanced cancer research and describe the procedures to access samples and data.