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Ethics and governance in cancer biobanking

26 October 2009   |   By Dr Philippa Brice   |   News story
The National Cancer Research Institute’s Confederation of Cancer Biobanks (CCB) is a consortium of UK organisations involved biobank resources for cancer research. The Confederation seeks to ‘promote and disseminate a collective view on best practices for biobanks’ and promote knowledge transfer, with the vision of each facility working in a seamless manner, creating an effective single ‘virtual biobank’ for the collection and distribution of biosamples for cancer research.

In January this year, the CCB held an expert Workshop on Ethics and Governance in Cancer Biobanking, the report from which is now available. Sections in the report, based on presentations and discussions, include an introduction to the CCB’s principles for good biobank governance, information governance, regulation of human tissue banking, ethical review of research tissue banks, the work of the UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Council and the need for greater public engagement in biobanking. The CCB say that many aspects of the discussions are relevant to biobanks in general, as well as cancer biobanks.

Keywords: Bioethics, Genetic Databases, Human Tissue, Post-Genomic Projects, Public Involvement

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