Whenever possible corresponding adjacent normal tissue is procured with tumor tissue. Corresponding blood samples are also obtained whenever feasible.
Patients sign consent forms for the procurement of their tissue and blood.
Serial sectioning of paraffin and frozen tissues is also available. The facility will work with the investigator to carry out experiments to optimize conditions when new technologies, applications, or rapidly degraded cellular components, such as RNA, are required from procured tissues. Specimens are distributed with a unique identification code. No patient identifying information is distributed to investigators. Patient care is our highest priority and thus, tissue procurement is secondary to any processing done by the Surgical Pathology Department for diagnostic purposes.