Participate in New LMS Repository Tissue Bank
Dr. John Brooks, a pathologist in
Philadelphia, has been awarded a grant from the
LMS Foundation to set up a LMS Repository Tissue Bank, to house tumor tissue blocks from LMS patients.
He is now asking
if you would like to participate in this collection process, which will provide the needed infrastructure for future research.
Basically, the Bank serves as a resource of material for investigators. No research can be accomplished
easily without such a resource. Research projects on the blocks will be approved by a Scientific Advisory
Committee, according to NIH guidelines.
Some of you have participated in the LMS Microarray Study by Dr. Matt Van de Rijn at Stanford
and had your blocks donated there. Dr. Brooks will need to have a consent form signed by you to hopefully
allow your blocks to be sent to him by Dr Van de Rijn (rather than be sent back to the original hospital).
Thus, if you were involved, please look at the U of Penn Consent form, print it out, and fill it out; be sure to check
yes in two places - yes to participate in the study, and yes in the spot asking for your material to be sent to Dr Brooks
from Dr Van de Rijn. When completed, please either fax the last page of the form to Dr Brooks (fax number
is on it) or send/mail to the address on the Consent Form itself.
Others who may not have participated in the LMS Microarray Study may
hopefully be willing to do so now. All work of contacting the original hospital will be done by Dr. Brooks,
once he has the information, so be sure to fill out the hospital's address. We are trying to collect
as many LMS tumor blocks as possible.
If you agree to participate, you can also fill out the last page of the informed consent
forms, being sure to include the Hospital where the tumor was removed (as opposed to a small biopsy); this would be valuable
information even if your block was sent to Dr Van de Rijn, as the hospital needs to be told your block is being forwarded
to the bank. If you would like, you could be sent an informed consent document by mail, for you to sign.
No one can participate without a signed consent form, as required by the IRB (Institutional Review Board).
Your information will be kept confidentially, including in the future when your tissue block is sent to a researcher,
who will only know tumor characteristics like location, size, etc..
If you need a paper copy of the Consent, please call 215-829-3541 and
identify yourself as an LMS patient or family member and my secretary Diane Flynn will assist you.
Thank you for considering
participation in the new LMS Sarcoma Repository Tissue Bank.
John S. J. Brooks, M.D., Pathology
Department, Pennsylvania Hospital February 2006 | 
