Central Biorepository Offers Access to Michigan Cutaneous Oncology Program Biospecimens

The Central Biorepository enables access to the hundreds of available Michigan Cutaneous Oncology Program biospecimens from Michigan Medicine patients and offers secure linkage to laboratory and clinical data offered by the Data Office.
   
The study program serves as a major referral center for the management of Melanoma, Merkel Cell carcinoma and other skin cancers. The Cutaneous Oncology Tissue Biobank Program was designed to promote the collection of tissue and blood samples for use in clinical and translational research. In addition to collection of tissue and blood samples, patients are asked to participate in an associated clinical database study in order to link pertinent clinical information with the samples.
   
Biospecimens available include DNA, whole blood, serum and frozen tissue. The study has more than 400 participants and they are enrolling patients over 18 years old who have any of these types of cancers:

•    Melanoma
•    Basal Cell Carcinoma
•    Metastatic Skin Cancers
•    Merkel Cell Carcinoma
•    Squamous Cell Carcinoma
•    Other skin cancers

Comprehensive phenotype data are available.
   
The Michigan Cutaneous Oncology Program is an active study of the Central Biorepository, a unit of the University of Michigan Medical School Office of Research, which facilitates discovery and improves healthcare outcomes by providing high-quality, highly annotated biospecimens donated for basic, clinical and translational research.
   
Interested in accessing skin cancer biospecimens for your study? Get started:

•    Search the Skin Cancer Disease cohort on Data Office’s self-serve tool, DataDirect.
•    Complete and submit a CBR Use Proposal Form and send to CBR.requests@umich.edu.

With IRB and oversight committee approval, datasets can be downloaded. Get more information about this contributing research program here!