Gynecologic Cancer Tissue Bank

The Gynecologic Cancer Tissue Bank (GTB) is a large biorepository that aims to improve knowledge about gynecologic cancers. It makes available to scientists across Canada large numbers of gynecologic tumour specimens, normal control tissues and clinical/pathological data for the study of gynecologic cancers. This is one of the largest tissue bank in Canada with a number of integrated sites across the province including BC Cancer, Vancouver General Hospital, Life Labs and Medical Valley Laboratories. This resource is available to any researcher studying gynecologic cancers. 

The GTB collects a range of different types of specimen including blood samples (plasma and buffy coat), fresh-frozen tissue, formalin fixed paraffin embedded tumour tissue, saliva, ascites.

Specimens are collected throughout the entire patient journey including:

• Tissue from primary and secondary debulking surgery
• Pre-operative blood samples
• Frequent follow up blood collection during and after active treatment
• Blood samples at the point of recurrence
• Diagnostic biopsy specimen
• And more!

Any patient with a gynecologic cancer is included in the tissue bank. This includes patients with ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, cervical cancer and vulvar/vaginal cancer. We even have some patients with non-malignant disease that are included in the tissue bank!