B74
An integrated web based pathology database to facilitate the annotation of tissue banked samples with high quality pathological and clinical data
Philip R. Quinlan1, Lee Jordan2, Colin Purdie2, Alison Ashfield1, Alastair Thompson1
1University of Dundee, UK, 2NHS Tayside, Dundee, UK
Background
Tissue banks provide a core facility for cancer researchers and enable high quality research on quality assured patient donated samples. These samples require clinical and pathological annotations to allow comparisons to be drawn between the research generated data and the conventional pathological and clinical outcome parameters. The challenge is to develop a flexible database system to capture these parameters and link these to the samples stored within a tissue bank.
Method
An independent database solution was developed to capture the pathological and clinical outcome data for all breast cancer patients. The pathology data set was developed in coordination with local pathologists and clinicians and based on the NHS Pathology Breast Cancer reporting template. The web-based interface allows the appointed research nurse to submit data as they are approved at the Multi Disciplinary Team Meetings. The patient records are also routinely checked to capture any data relating to disease recurrence, treatments and surgical procedures. Using the locally designed INSPIRE system, this data can be paired to the tissue banked samples and any subsequent data generated from the use of these samples and tested for statistical significance. Access to this data set is granted for either clinical audit purposes or to locally approved tissue bank projects, which have met the necessary ethical requirements.
Conclusion
The inclusion of this system allows for the samples to be enriched with comprehensive and complete pathological / clinical data and allows researchers to optimize comparisons without duplicating previously collected data.
