IMPLEMENTATION OF PATHWAY TO STORE FRESH FROZEN BRAIN TUMOUR TISSUE AND THE CHALLENGES FACED; A SINGLE CENTRE CASE STUDY

Abstract AIMS The direction of Cancer treatments is moving towards targeted therapies. Centres across the UK are beginning trials for these such as the 5G platform trial. For a patient to be eligible for this they must have a sample of fresh frozen brain tumour tissue stored, and the whole genome sequences. The previous standard of care was for post operative brain tumour samples to be stored in paraffin. These samples were not suitable for many clinical trials. The aim was to implement a robust pathway where tumour tissue can be stored as a fresh frozen sample, enabling this to be used for onward oncology trials. METHODS Oncologist liaised with other oncology centres and it was established that the main limiting factor to storage of the fresh tissue was freezer space. Consultations with neuropathology occurred and the funding was organised for a specialist freezer. RESULTS Specialist freezer organised and obtained, and fresh frozen tissue is now being stored for primary glial tumours if there is sufficient sample. It was then highlighted that there would be a gap for patients operated out of hours paediatric patients. Pathology lab would not fund a second freezer. Multiple agencies were contracted and eventually it was agreed that the hospital charity would help fund this second freezer. CONCLUSION The implementation appeared to be straight forward, and the limiting factor was requiring a fridge. However the process of liaising with multiple teams was very time consuming. There were disagreements around who should fund the freezer, as this should be standard of care. Further work needs to be done on the quality of samples collected to ensure that each patient has viable tissue to be stored.