The National Cancer Act was signed 40 years ago this year. And while scientists and physicians at the University of Minnesota and elsewhere have made great strides in how cancer is diagnosed, prevented and treated, there is still much that is not understood.

That’s why the National Institutes of Health created the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) – a nationwide effort to understand how errors in DNA cause various types of cancer. Cancer occurs when a mistake in a cell’s DNA causes cells to grow uncontrollably, so understanding the DNA sequences that lead to cancer could provide scientists with vital information to create better treatments for the estimated 1.6 million Americans who will be faced with a cancer diagnosis in 2011.

The University of Minnesota is playing a vital role in the TCGA through providing tissue samples to the project. “It really speaks to the fact that we have high quality tissue specimens,” said Stephen Schmechel, M.D., pathologist and director of BioNET, a centralized University service that provides University researchers with access to biomedical specimens and pathology expertise.

Here’s how the process works. The University provides samples to Asterand, a private company that has a contract with TCGA to provide cancer specimens to its Biospecimen Core, which then shares with select genomics labs across the country for more specific scientific study. TCGA is administered by the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, and involves more than 150 researchers working together at dozens of institutions across the nation.

BioNET obtains the samples from patients who come to the University for treatments. After obtaining permission from patients, tumor cells that are not needed for routine clinical care and would otherwise have been discarded are instead stored and saved for research purposes. Schmechel said the vast majority of people give their permission to store and study their tumor cells – BioNET has nearly 100,000 tissue samples.

University researchers have been able to access these samples since 1996, and now because of this new relationship with TCGA, BioNET’s samples will have the potential to reach many more researchers, accelerating the discovery process around cancer. “All of the data is made publicly available,” Schmechel said. “This gives us a chance to contribute to a much broader scientific community.”

Learn more about BioNET and cancer research at the University.