CANCER PATIENTS could help uncover better ways to diagnose and treat the disease - if they donated removed tumours or blood samples for research, according to a patient advocate from the United States who will address a biobanking conference in Dublin tomorrow.
Samples from cancer patients hold a wealth of information about potential new treatments, and Ireland now needs to set up a system so researchers can properly access such "biospecimens", said Paula Kim, co-founder of Translating Research Across Communities.
"If you talk to the drug companies, they tell you that biospecimens are one of the limiting factors to drug discovery," she told The Irish Times.
"The technology is getting pretty sophisticated but if we don't have the specimens, it will slow down the development of potential treatments for cancer."
Biobanked samples could provide critical pieces of the puzzle in researching disease, but the standard of the material was key, she added. "If we do not have good quality, annotated specimens with clinical data, then people can't do anything with it."
At present, most samples are donated for use in specific clinical trials, explained Ms Kim, but she would like to see more "greater-good-of-mankind" biobank systems to which patients can donate tissue that would be otherwise discarded.
She is now calling on the Republic, along with all other developed countries, to develop robust systems for collecting, storing and accessing donated tissue from consenting patients - to increase the possibilities for rigorous and effective research practices.
"I think countries have an enormous opportunity to get things right. And I think governments have an obligation and a responsibility to put some reasonable procedures and best practices in place.
"Otherwise it's like the wild west where everyone is doing their own thing and that's where we run into problems," said Ms Kim, who has campaigned for improved cancer research since her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 10 years ago.
"The train is leaving the station, and every developed country needs to be paying attention to this. If they do then they will be helping generations to come, and if they don't they will impede progress."
Tomorrow's conference will bring together medical, nursing, scientific and industry interests as well as the general public, said Prof Eoin Gaffney, who directs Biobank Ireland, which is seeking funding to set up a network of linked biobanks here.
"There's great enthusiasm in developing a biobanking infrastructure in Ireland," he said, noting that a report from a working group on biobanking to the government is due in the coming months.
