The Role of the CALGB Pathology Coordinating Office:

The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) is a national cooperative cancer clinical trials group supported by the National Cancer Institute. More than 250 academic medical centers, hospitals and physician practices enroll patients on CALGB clinical trials in breast cancer, GI cancer, GU cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, leukemia and lymphoma. For many years, a major goal of CALGB studies has been to understand the biological factors that determine the prognosis or predict response to therapy of various tumor types. The CALGB has made important contributions to identifying cytogenetic sub-groups within the heterogeneous diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia that have prognostic importance, as well as, in describing relationships between her2/neu expression in stage II breast cancer and treatment outcomes associated with the dose intensity of doxorubicin-based therapy. Conducting correlative science studies require a coordinated system that includes the centralized collection of tumor cells and tissues, storage under controlled conditions, a comprehensive inventory, a process to distribute specimens to investigators and to receive the assay results from research laboratories and policies to address responsible research including safeguarding patient confidentiality. Ultimately, the results of the laboratory studies must be linked to and correlated with the clinical outcomes of patients treated on CALGB clinical trials so that useful conclusions can be drawn regarding the relationship between tumor biology and treatment outcome. The CALGB has developed tissue repositories located at The Ohio State University that collect viable leukemia cells, as well as, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded solid tumor specimens for use by the investigator community.*

The Pathology Coordinating Office (PCO) for the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) is a repository for formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded tissue and fluid specimens obtained from patients enrolled on CALGB solid tumor protocols. It is located in the Department of Pathology at The Ohio State University (OSU). The principal investigator and PCO Laboratory Director is Scott Jewell, Ph.D., Research Scientist and Clinical Associate Professor. The activities of the PCO are coordinated by Dan Rohrer. The PCO is located at the Innovation Centre, 2001 Polaris Parkway, Columbus, Ohio 43240. The phone and fax numbers are 614-293-7073 and 614-293-7967, respectively. The PCO can also be reached by email at path.calgb@osumc.edu or via the CALGB website, www.calgb.org.

The CALGB PCO is located in approximately 7,200 square feet of space that consists of an office (1,000 sq.ft.), laboratory space (4,400 sq.ft.) and a Biorepository (1,800 sq.ft.). The PCO receives, processes, stores and distributes paraffin blocks and slides, peripheral blood, plasma, serum and urine from the CALGB main member and at - large member institutions and their affiliated hospitals, as well as from other cooperative groups. Paraffin blocks are catalogued and either processed immediately for microtomy or Tissue MicroArray. Paraffin blocks are stored and vacuum packed at 4°C until needed. Tissue sections that are cut from the paraffin blocks are placed on microscope slides and vacuum packed until they are shipped to an investigator. The PCO ensures that patient specimen blocks will be handled with the greatest of care, never exhausting a block of material and returning the blocks to the originating hospital within 24 hours to a few weeks or when required by the submitting institution.

*Schilsky R, Dressler LM, Bucci D, Monovich L, Jewell S, Suster S, Caligiuri MA, Kantoff P, Compton C. Cooperative Group Tissue Banks as Research Resources: The Cancer and Leukemia Group B Tissue Repositories (2002), Clinical Cancer Research, May, 8(5).