NCI's Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources
One of the most widely recognized and significant roadblocks to progress in cancer research is the lack of standardized, high-quality biospecimens. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) developed the NCI Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources (NCI Best Practices) based on extensive research and expert input into the state of NCI-funded biospecimen resources as well as the quality of biospecimens used in cancer research. The NCI Best Practices outline the operational, technical, ethical, legal, and policy best practices for NCI-supported biospecimen resources.
Best Practices
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Introduction
The Best Practices outline principles for state-of-the-science biospecimen resource practices, promote biospecimen and data quality, and support adherence to ethical and legal requirements.
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Scope, Applicability, and Implementation
The technical, operational, and ethical, legal, and policy best practices outlined here are intended to support consistency and standardization across biospecimen resources.
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Technical and Operational Best Practices
Describes principles for biospecimen resource management and operations, biospecimen collection, processing and storage procedures, QA/QC, biosafety, and data collection and data management.
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Ethical, Legal, and Policy Best Practices
Describes principles for responsible custodianship, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality protections, access to biospecimens and data, intellectual property and resource sharing, and conflicts of interest.