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).
