Update of the WTC Cancer Tissue Biobank

Icahn School Of Medicine At Mount Sinai, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attack, concerns were raised about the short and long term effects of exposure to the World Trade Center (WTC) dust cloud. Responders and residents were exposed to a complex mixture of toxic chemicals that included multiple known and suspected human carcinogens which could increase cancer risk. Over the years, an increased risk in overall cancer incidence, and specifically of prostate, thyroid, melanoma and tonsil cancers has been observed. To understand the biological reasons for the observed cancer increase, in 2015 we established at MSSM the cancer tissue biobank (CTB), with CDC/NIOHS support. Currently 472 tumor tissue samples from responders have been collected, characterized and stored. Research on the cancer samples have significantly moved forward the field; for prostate, our own study on cancer tissues suggests the possibility of a biologically more aggressive cancer due to the nature of the environmental exposure in this population. Several ongoing collaborative studies involve tissue biomarkers of tumor behavior, aggressiveness, as well as whole genome analyses on cancer and normal adjacent tissues to understand if WTC exposure played a role in cancer etiology and outcome. We propose to update the existing biobank of human solid organ tissues from each cancer diagnosed after 2018, the date of last follow-up, among the WTC rescue and recovery workers, and to link the existing biobank to BioMe, an electronic medical record-linked blood biobank at MSSM of all patients' encounters who signed a research consent. The scope is to create an overall picture of the WTC responder's health, including clinical data and blood samples pre-cancer diagnosis, to facilitate future clinical and translational studies on WTC cancer etiology, biology, and cancer outcome. This project proposes to update the central repository of cancer tissue samples and adjacent normal tissue from each solid cancer diagnosed among the WTC Health Program (WTCHP) participants. This repository has the capability to be linked with the main WTCHP data set containing clinical, epidemiological and exposure information, as well as with the peripheral blood sample collected from the participants at the time of inclusion in the WTCHP. Through BioMe we will also access complete medical record history, and blood samples collected before or after a cancer diagnosis for WTC responders with cancer who are also MSSM patients. Clinical information collected by BioMe, and ancestry, will be available as well. Adding blood to the WTC cancer sample biobank will open the possibility of studies on temporal changes in systemic inflammation, metal and other toxicant exposure, metabolomics, and other biological markers over time. Blood-based markers can also be compared against markers observed in cancer tissue samples. We establish the tissue bank as a resource for the science community, by defining a process for qualified applicants to request available samples for research use, and for linking with the epidemiologic and clinical information in the database. A plan for the evaluation of the tissue bank usage and success, as measured by publications and funding obtained by investigators using the samples, is also included.