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Updated: Mar 12, 2026
A Next-generation Tissue Microarray ngTMA Protocol for Biomarker Studies
Published on: September 23, 2014
Construction and Validation of a Multi-Institutional Tissue Microarray of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma From Racially and
Edward Seijo1, Diana Lima, Egiebade Iriabho
1Tumor Biology Program, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA. Teresita.Antonia@Moffitt.org.
Background:
The scarcity of tissues from racial and ethnic minorities at biobanks poses a scientific constraint to research addressing health disparities in minority populations.
Methods:
To address this gap, the Minority Biospecimen/Biobanking Geographic Management Program for region 3 (BMaP-3) established a working infrastructure for a "biobanking" hub in the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico. Herein we describe the steps taken to build this infrastructure, evaluate the feasibility of collecting formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks and associated data from a single cancer type (breast), and create a web-based database and tissue microarrays (TMAs).
Results:
Cancer registry data from 6 partner institutions were collected, representing 12,408 entries from 8,279 unique patients with breast cancer (years 2001-2011). Data were harmonized and merged, and deidentified information was made available online. A TMA was constructed from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) representing 427 patients with breast cancer (147 African Americans, 168 Hispanics, and 112 non-Hispanic whites) and was annotated according to biomarker status and race/ethnicity. Biomarker analysis of the TMA was consistent with the literature.
Conclusions:
Contributions from participating institutions have facilitated a robust research tool. TMAs of IDC have now been released for 5 projects at 5 different institutions.
