The CALGB Leukemia Tissue Bank

As one of the nation's largest cooperative cancer treatment groups, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology (Alliance) is in a unique position to organize a Leukemia Tissue Bank. The member institutions diagnose hundreds of patients with leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome each year, and uniformly treat these patients with chemotherapy regimens. The Alliance offers centralized data management for the clinical history, the classification of the leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, cytogenetics, flow cytometric analysis, treatment and follow-up. The highly skilled health care providers at each member institution are familiar with obtaining informed consent, completing data questionnaires and shipping specimens. There currently exists a central processing facility where samples are prepared for a variety of cellular and molecular studies. Hence, the patient resources, the health care providers, and a processing facility for a Leukemia Tissue Bank are all in place. What is needed, however, and is addressed in the current protocol, is a formal mechanism to procure bone marrow, blood and normal tissue from patients with hematologic malignancies who are to be enrolled on Alliance (Cancer and Leukemia Group B [CALGB]) treatment studies.