Mission of the CVBTB: The mission of the Canadian Virtual Brain Tumour Bank (CVBTB) is to facilitate clinical, molecular and translational research through the provision of well-characterized tissue linked to clinical data and to become a standardized national tissue resource whereby scientific needs are met, addressed and accelerated through a common public accessible core – the CVBTB

Purpose of the CVBTB: Recognizing the need to encourage systemic banking of brain tumour tissues throughout the country and to link banks of brain tumour tissue samples with academic and scientific institutions that require these samples, the CVBTB was established. Under the sponsorship of Schering Plough Canada Inc. and in association with the Canadian Brain Tumour Consortium (CBTC), the CVBTB looks to act as a resource for all researchers to provide them with information on the types of brain tumour tissue samples available and to direct them to the tumour tissue banking sites holding these samples. The CVBTB also looks to provide information on standard operating procedures regarding aspects of tumour tissue banking such as tissue accrual, storage and shipment and the processing of blood samples such as serum and lymphocytes.

  The ultimate goal of the CVBTB is to ultimately become a self-sustaining entity while striving to further brain tumour research of academic and scientific institutions both at a national and international level. As a virtual bank, no actual live specimens are kept on site but rather a compilation of the type and number of all brain tumour tissue samples available from all brain tumour banking sites involved with the CVBTB.

Inception of the CVBTB: The initial stages of development of the CVBTB began in early 2006. With collaboration from neurooncologists, ethics advisors, neuropathologists, technicians, web designers and tumour tissue banks across the country, the groundwork for the CVBTB was put into place and has recently gone live in the summer of 2007. The CVBTB is currently being advertised within the Society of Neurooncology (SNO) and with the Canadian Brain Tumour Consortium (CBTC). While still in its infancy stages, the CVBTB is always looking to improve the website and to make it more accessible and more user friendly to its users. Comments and suggestions to improve the site are always welcome.

CVBTB Governance:

Directors:
Dr. A. Guha – Toronto Western Hospital
Dr. J.F. Pouliot – Schering-Plough Canada Inc.
Dr. J. Perry – CBTC
Dr. G. Cairncross – NCIC-CTG

Committee:
Dr. A. Guha – Scientific Director (Toronto)
Dr. P. Forsyth – Scientific Co-Director (Calgary)
Dr. D. Ramsay – Scientific Co-Director (London)
Dr. R. Del Maestro – Scientific Co-Director (Montreal)
Dr. R. Heselgrave – Ethics Advisor
Dr. S. Croul – Neuropathology

Coordinator:
Darren Partridge– Toronto Western Hospital

CVBTB Patient Confidentiality and Privacy: The use of human tissue for the purpose of research has been proven to be of immense importance to the advancement of knowledge. The ethical considerations raised by research involving human tissue center on the moral status of tissue, on access to and use of data from the tissue and consequently, on the standards that define precisely how those involved in research relate to one another. In this regard, it is a fundamental ethical principle that researchers, in the collection and use of human tissue, respect individual and community notions of human dignity and physical, spiritual and cultural integrity.

The CVBTB is committed to ensuring the confidentiality and privacy of all specimen donors. To ensure that the clinical information and privacy of the donor is respected, the identity of the donor is withheld. The names of the patient as well as hospital ID are omitted. The gender, age and pathology diagnosis are the only pieces of information provided pertaining to the donor. For identification purposes, a unique CVBTB ID number is assigned to each sample and will be used as reference during sample queries and sample requisitions.

With respect to ethics approval, all specimen collection and clinical information retrieval have been given ethics approval to the CVBTB and also to each of the tumour tissue bank sites involved with the CVBTB. Informed consent is obtained from all donors at each tumour tissue bank site prior to sample collection. The CVBTB all tumour tissue bank sites involved with the CVBTB aim to be fully compliant with all federal, provincial and institutional guidelines, policies and procedures regarding patient ethics, patient participation in research and specimen collection.