The Availability of Human Biospecimens to Support Biomarker Research

Abstract

Preserved biospecimens held in biobank inventories and clinical archives are important resources for biomarker research. Recent advances in technologies have led to an increase in use of clinical archives in particular, in order to study retrospective cohorts and to generate data relevant to tissue biomarkers. This raises the question of whether the current sizes of biobank inventories are appropriate to meet the demands of biomarker research. This commentary discusses this question by considering data concerning overall biobank and biospecimen numbers to estimate current biospecimen supply and use. The data suggests that biospecimen supply exceeds current demand. Therefore, it may be important for individual biobanks to reassess the targets for their inventories, consider culling unused portions of these inventories, and shift resources towards providing prospective custom biobanking services.

Keywords: Biobanks; Inventory; Utilization.

Figure 1.

Schematic of changes in the proportions of major human biospecimen categories and the main sources of these biospecimens used by biomarker research over 4 decades. Major biospecimen categories described in terms of type and preservation formats include fresh, formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE), and frozen tissue biospecimens and fresh and frozen blood biospecimens. The main sources of these biospecimens are indicated as follows; prospective biobanking (fresh tissue and blood), pathology archives (FFPE) and biobank inventories (frozen tissue and blood).

Figure 2.

Four main aspects to the decision process to keep or discard collections of biospecimens. For many collections all aspects will be important to consider. Donor parameters include Ethical, Legal and Societal factors (eg, complex issues may arise due to specific conditions in the original donor consent form, or association with defined minority populations). Collection features include the characteristics of the patient cohort, the biospecimens, and the annotating data (high value features might include association of cohort with a specific new treatment, matching blood and tissue biospecimens collected at more than 1 timepoint, extended patient outcomes data). Operational issues include the availability of sufficient finances, storage space, and staff, to support ongoing maintenance costs. Research value indicators include rarity, extent of prior utilization, and assessment of prospects for future use.