A Novel Method to Generate Analyte-Specific Specimens for Multi-Omic Studies of Primary Bladder Cancer

A major roadblock to the investigation of emerging "omic" technologies is the availability of clinically derived tumor tissue. This problem is compounded by tissue being processed in labs using formalin-fixation, paraffin-embedding. A novel approach that circumvents these barriers was developed and tested. This approach represents an opportunity for biobanks to generate hard-to-obtain specimens from clinical tumor specimens for emerging "omic" research studies.

This study demonstrates a specimen processing method capable of creating new samples dedicated for multi-omic studies from clinical tissues, all without detracting from the current formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded process.

Using this new method, aliquots for the study of exosomes and metabolites can be generated from primary bladder cancers excised via transurethral resections. Once procured, the nature of tumor-derived exosomes can be examined using an exosome protein microRNA one-stop biosensor and metabolites via liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Intact cells are also recovered and can be prepared for examination by either Thin-Prep cytology methods or the creation of cell blocks. The latter methods are used to confirm the phenotype of the cells present in these aliquots.

Populations of diagnostic tumor cells were confirmed to be recovered and morphologically consistent with the originating parent tissue. Isolation and characterization of exosomes from these dedicated samples confirmed the presence of tumor-specific signal molecules. The untargeted profiling of other dedicated aliquots found identifiable metabolites of multiple different classes that had been extracted from these tumor cells.

The fight against cancer will involve understanding its complexities. Developing technologies to under-studied analytes of cancer will be integral to this process. The adoption of the described tumor specimen processing approach in primary bladder cancer in this study represents a novel means for biobanks to generate and collect dedicated aliquots for research into these analytes of increasing importance.