Information for Patients
Inclusion Criteria
- Participant/donor is willing and able to give informed consent for tissue to be stored for future research.
- Male or Female, aged 18 years or above.
- Ability to give written informed consent.
- Participants will be patients diagnosed with or suspected of gastro-intestinal and other cancers.
- 'Controls' will be either
- related to patients (relative/spouse/partner), provided they are aged 18 years or above or
- those patients with benign conditions such as hernia, gallstones and others: control patients.
Exclusion Criteria
The tissue may not be collected if ANY of the following apply:
- Refusal of consent
- Inability of consent
- Withdrawal of consent
- Age below 18 years of age
Clinical Trials
We fully support patients being entered into clinical trials and this initiative will not compromise the opportunity for patients to participate in on-going trials at their institution.
We do not believe that being involved in a clinical trial excludes a patient from participating in the CTB, and indeed many clinical trials now require a tissue sample.
Generally, pathologists are responsible for this: all will be engaged with CTB and therefore will ensure equitable access to tissue.
There is a potential conflict in that companies funding a particular trial may not allow access of post-treatment samples for open research.
We understand this; however, the Centres have encountered few, if any, of these trials.
The trials our Centres are involved in do not preclude us from using the tissues.
We would also suggest, in the fullness of time, to link up with the tissue resources that are generated through clinical trials so we could direct applications to the appropriate trial resource.
