Longitudinal Sample Collection and Tracking for the Developmental Therapeutics Clinic, National Cancer Institute

Background:

Research samples and data collected on a treatment-intent protocol are discrete items associated with that protocol up until the patient comes off study, usually due to disease progression. These data are not stored in the patient s medical records, but are essential to understand tumor response to different drugs over time. Patients in the Developmental Therapeutics Clinic (DTC) often start other clinical trials; this protocol provides a mechanism to connect research data about that patient from one trial to the next as long as the patient remains eligible and has given his or her informed consent. No new analysis will be performed under this protocol.

There is research interest in collecting pre- and post-dose research biopsies and other samples such as circulating tumor cells to measure dynamic drug-specific target effects (e.g., changes in epithelial-mesenchymal transition, DNA damage response, or immunotherapeutic cell infiltration), and then to evaluate molecular changes before and during disease progression to understand why the tumors initially respond but then became resistant to treatment.

To accomplish this, we will connect research results from consecutive trials with limited patient information (age, sex, disease, prior therapies, protocol number/drug regimen, response, and duration of treatment).

Each patient who consents to participate in this non-treatment, longitudinal sample protocol agrees to allow his or her Medical Record Number (MRN) to be used to track participation on DTC clinical trials.