Biobanking ‘key’ to cancer success

IRELAND’S cancer strategy success depends on having a biobanking network, a leading pathologist claimed yesterday.

Biobanking is the storage, for research purposes, of surplus cancer tissue removed during surgery and usually discarded.

“It is a long-term investment, which is why we must start developing the network without delay,” said Prof Eoin Gaffney, who will address a public meeting on bio-banking in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in Dublin on Monday.

Prof Gaffney, a consultant at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, said he saw people coming to the hospital every day with very advanced cancer.

Molecular pathologists and oncologists believe research on frozen tissue samples could hold key information in the cancer fight. “We have to create more awareness about how research can help in the long-term fight against cancer,” said Prof Gaffney.