The Pathology Shared Resource provides histology and pathology services to support basic, epidemiologic, translational, and clinical research studies that use fresh, frozen, and fixed/paraffin-embedded human and animal tissue specimens. Services include the following: procurement of human tissue specimens (from archives and from outside medical facilities); histology services (tissue processing and embedding, sectioning, staining, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, DNA extraction, tissue microarray slides); and pathology consultation.

The Pathology Shared resource capitalizes on the existing infrastructure of the Center’s statewide tissue repository. The Repository currently consists of over 800,000 cancer tissue specimens from the mid-1970s through 1999. Cancer tissue specimens are also linked to clinically relevant information. The purpose of the repository is to provide tissue specimens to Center members and other investigators for research purposes. A priority is placed on the provision of specimens for peer-reviewed, extramurally funded research.

In addition to conventional histology services, the Proposed Shared Resource supports the development of population-based research tools such as tissue microarrays (TMAs). Utilizing specimens residing in the Repository, population-based TMAs from this diverse multi-ethnic population offer powerful tools for testing hypotheses regarding cancer etiology, development, and progression. Furthermore, the condensed format of this tissue resource provides investigators substantial savings with respect to labor and reagent costs. A colorectal cancer TMA has been developed and a breast cancer TMA is currently being constructed. TMAs will be available to investigators as part of this Shared Resource.

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