Abstract 5930: The Pancreas Tissue Bank (PCRFTB): Global facilitation of pancreatic research
Authors: Hemant M. Kocher, Brian Davidson, John Isherwood, Stuart Robinson, Zahir Soonawalla, Lulu Tanno, Satyajit Bhattacharya, Bilal al-Sarireh, Somaiah Aroori, Rhiannon Roberts, Christine S. Hughes, Ahmet Imrali, Amina Saad, Trupti S. Kolvekar, Maryam Abollahyan, Dayem A. Ullah, Claude Chelala
Journal: Cancer Research (2025)

Abstract Pancreatic cancer is one of the most devastating diseases. Worldwide, the disease claims &amp;gt;300, 000 lives per year with the worst 5-year survival of all common cancers (&amp;lt;7%), with little improvement over the last 50 years. Even though pre-clinical work has led to greater understanding of the patho-physiology of the disease, research into human disease is hampered by lack of availability of well-annotated human samples. With this in mind, Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund Tissue Bank (PCRFTB) was set up as world’s first national pancreas tissue bank. PCRFTB facilitated pancreatic research globally by providing access to clinically well-annotated samples collected according to standardised protocols and reliably stored. Informed consent is obtained from patients with suspected benign, pre-malignant and malignant pancreatico-biliary diseases, together with healthy controls to provide contemporaneous controls for case-control studies using blood and its components, urine, saliva in addition to matched fresh frozen and FFPE tissue diseased and healthy tissues. Comprehensive clinical data with 300 data-points per visit include medical history, medications, clinical test results (radiological, blood, tissue, mutational), histological findings, treatment and outcomes which are clinically verified. Since 2015, across nine tertiary referral Centres across England and Wales, we have obtained consent from over 3, 700 donors and collected over 110, 000 tissue, fluid and cell samples. Patient derived organoids and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) derived from various primary pancreas tumours using standardised protocols and with certification. The process of consenting, collection, storage and distribution of data and samples are performed, quality controlled and quality assured using over 100 standardised operating procedures in a custom-built Quality Management System (QMS) with additional audits, dashboards and governance to achieve highest quality, robust and reliable research from these valuable human samples. We are in the process of achieving ISO 20387 certification in early 2025.A multidisciplinary PCRFTB Tissue Access Committee (PCRFTB TAC) undertakes in-confidence, rapid-access peer review of applications for access of samples and / or data based on quality of the science, priority, power and supporting preliminary data. Thus far 108 expressions of interest has led to provision of samples and/or data to 50 research projects from commercial and academic institutions globally. Research impact emanating from PCRFTB samples data is enhanced by mandating experimental data return from researchers through the custom-built pancreatic cancer bio-informatics portal Pancreatic Expression Database (PED). PED also allows researchers to access, mine and investigate datasets, preventing duplication of investigation efforts and conserving sample resources. Citation Format: Hemant M. Kocher, Brian Davidson, John Isherwood, Stuart Robinson, Zahir Soonawalla, Lulu Tanno, Satyajit Bhattacharya, Bilal al-Sarireh, Somaiah Aroori, Rhiannon Roberts, Christine S. Hughes, Ahmet Imrali, Amina Saad, Trupti S. Kolvekar, Maryam Abollahyan, Dayem A. Ullah, Claude Chelala. The Pancreas Tissue Bank (PCRFTB): Global facilitation of pancreatic research [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_1):Abstract nr 5930.