Biobanking - the First Step to Successful Liquid Biopsy Experiments

Archiving of biological materials in biobanks is considered to be the initial crucial part of research activities. Most often, biobanks are founded for research purposes since they allow collection of sufficient material for analysis of new or testing of previously identified biomarkers. Biobanking needs to quickly react to current needs of researchers as well as clinicians, it is not a rigid system. Laboratory analyses of monoclonal gammopathies are based on separation of plasma cells from bone marrow of patients. A specific problem is usually a lack of tumor cell fraction, which is due to location of tumor cell in bone marrow in combination with low infiltration. One of the challenges in clinical research is the necessity of changes in biobanking for samples allowing detection of minimal residual disease in the bone marrow but also from peripheral blood by the so-called liquid biopsies.

The aim of this review is to show the importance of archiving biological material in the Czech Republic and to show concrete examples of its usage in hematooncology.

A general problem in solving many research questions is the availability of a critical amount of specimens for statistical analysis. Obtaining critical amount of specimens of biological material can be quickly archived by cooperation of biobanks sharing both methodological standards and informations about the availability of samples for research projects.Key words: archiving - biological material - informed consent - multiple myeloma - plasma cells.