Suzanne Vercauteren

PhD, MD, FRCPC

Investigator, BC Children's Hospital

The CCBR BioBank Initiative

Patient's samples are for translational research what gas is for a car: the driving force! During my research career I have always been aware of the value of patient samples for research and the difficulty of obtaining these samples in a systematic and ethical manner. This was largely due to an ineffective and inconsistent process of BioBanking and not the lack of enthusiasm from patients to donate. Therefore, I started the CCBR BioBanking initiative which started storing the first patient samples in September 2011. This initiative has quickly taken root and other departments at C&W and BCCHR have joined. It is our hope to establish institutional BioBanking mechanisms to develop a standardized and ethical method of consenting, processing samples, and storing health information.

For more information about the BioBank initiative you can go to the following website: bcchr.ca/biobank

Minimal Residual Disease testing

Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) is the name given to small numbers of malignant cells that remain in the patient during or after treatment when the patient has no signs or symptoms of the disease. It is very important to see whether patients still have MRD as it may mean they need more or different treatments. Flow cytometry methods look at markers on the cell surface of cells or inside the cell. Malignant cells often have a different expression pattern of markers compared to normal cells and therefore using this method we can distinguish between normal and malignant cells in a large number of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

In our laboratory we routinely test all patients with ALL for MRD at day 8 in their blood and Day 29 in bone marrow by a method called flow cytometry. We are currently investigating new markers to detect MRD more specifically and in more patients with ALL. We are also working on a method to detect MRD in patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). In addition, we are doing research in collaboration with Dr. Strahlendorf and Dr. Tanya Brown to see whether we can detect minimal disease as well as MRD in the bone marrow of patients with a solid tumor called neuroblastoma.