Tumor Biobanks at the Service of Precision Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

Biobanks represent "service units" inside of public or private health facilities, with no direct profit making, aimed at collecting, storing, processing, and distributing human biological material. In recent years, among the disease-oriented biobanks, the tumor biobank has certainly collected the greatest interest and centralized most of the funding. Among the biomaterials types stored in the tumor biobanks, there are tumor tissues, healthy tissues, cells, nucleic acids, proteins, peripheral blood samples, and other body fluids (saliva, urine, etc.). The clinic, demographic, and molecular data from patients should be recorded in dedicated databases that can be consulted in compliance with the laws protecting privacy and the use of genetic data. The main purpose of the tumor biobank is to promote studies aimed at identifying pathogenetic and progression-inducing alterations, but also studying the correlations between specific gene profiles and lifestyles, environmental exposure, etc.

However, if originally, the biobanks were implemented exclusively to support translational research, today the scenario has completely changed. In the clinical–diagnostic field, it has become mandatory to guarantee the quality of biomaterials to identify predictive biomarkers of therapeutic response and to study the molecular mechanisms related to drug resistance. In the last 20 years, the introduction of -omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) in the characterization of tumor diseases has led to the identification of hundreds of potential biomarkers; however, very few have been validated with clinical studies on biological samples. Biobanks, providing biological samples and associated quality data, are therefore indispensable for enhancing precision medicine in clinical practice by promoting diagnostic pathways designed ad hoc for the patient, with a great impact on the overall health of the population.

This Special Issue will provide a comprehensive update on advances in precision medicine in oncology, highlighting the need to provide high-quality biomaterials, preserved according to standardized operating procedures within certified biobanks.

Prof. Monica Cantile
Prof. Gerardo Botti
Guest Editors

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