NCI's Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources
To improve the quality and availability of biospecimens and associated data for cancer research, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) developed the NCI Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources (NCI Best Practices). The NCI Best Practices are based on extensive research and community input. The NCI Best Practices outline governance principles for biospecimen resources, including ethical, regulatory, legal, and policy considerations, as well as operational and technical best practices for NCI-supported biospecimen resources. Biospecimen resources are encouraged to align with the principles outlined in this document and take a leading role in optimizing biospecimens for cancer research and improving research reproducibility.
NCI Best Practices
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Introduction
The NCI Best Practices outline the principles for state-of-the-science practices for biospecimen resources with the overarching goal of improving the quality of biospecimens and associated data.
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Scope, Applicability, and Implementation
The governance, technical, and operational best practices outlined here are intended to support consistency and standardization across biospecimen resources.
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Governance Best Practices
Describes the principles for responsible custodianship, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality protections, access to biospecimens and data, intellectual property and resource sharing, conflicts of interest, and legacy planning
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Technical and Operational Best Practices
Describes principles for the management and operations of a biospecimen resource; biospecimen collection, processing, storage, retrieval and dissemination procedures; QA/QC; biosafety; and biospecimen and clinical data collection and management.