MesobanK UK: an international mesothelioma bioresource

Thorax 2015 October 14 [Epub ahead of print] [Link]

Rintoul RC, Rassl DM, Gittins J, Marciniak SJ; MesobanK collaborators.

Abstract

Malignant pleural mesothelioma causes the greatest societal burden of all the asbestos-related diseases. Progress in better understanding tumour biology will be facilitated by the availability of quality-assured annotated tissue. MesobanK has been created to establish a bioresource of pleural mesothelioma tissue linked to detailed anonymised clinical data. When complete, the bioresource will comprise a 750-patient tissue microarray and prospectively collected tissue, blood and pleural fluid from 300 patients with mesothelioma. Twenty-six new cell lines have also been developed. MesobanK meets all appropriate ethical and regulatory procedures and has recently opened to requests for tissue and data.