Breast SPORE Core Resources

The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center SPORE in Brain Cancer comprises four Mayo investigator-initiated research projects, and two scientific cores constructed around a theme of breast cancer and consolidated by an administrative core. The SPORE also contains Career Development and Developmental Research Programs.

Administrative Core
Director: James Ingle, M.D.

The Administrative Core is responsible for providing administrative and organizational support for the leadership of the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE, in order to ensure optimal communication between SPORE components, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic as a whole, other breast SPOREs and the National Cancer Institute. This Core is crucial to the optimal integration of all SPORE activities and effective and efficient oversight. The Administrative Core will coordinate the activities of the SPORE Executive Committee, the Mayo Inter-SPORE Advisory Committee, the Internal Scientific Advisory Committee and the External Advisory Committee; each of which have specific functions focusing on maximizing the translational research productivity. This Core will also provide administrative support for the activities of the Developmental Research Program and the Career Development Program. The Administrative Core will assist the SPORE Director in coordinating and facilitating the Research Projects and ensuring the proper functioning of the Cores in support of the translational research effort.

Biospecimens and Patient Registry Core
Co-Directors: Wilma L. Lingle, Ph.D.; and Carol Reynolds, M.D.

The goal of this Core is to provide investigators in this SPORE with high quality patient data, DNA, RNA, serum, and breast tissues from breast cancer patients and normal control patients, and to make these resources available for future translational studies. The activities of the Biospecimens and Patient Registry Core are conducted in a way that does not compromise patient confidentiality, yet is as comprehensive as possible in the materials that are provided.

The acquisition of human biospecimens and subsequent cellular and molecular analysis of those specimens within the context of patient data are key to many translational studies of cancer. Breast SPORE activities will continue Mayo Clinic's strong tradition of biospecimen acquisition and centralized patient data records. Mayo Clinic Cancer Center's Biospecimen and Accessioning (BAP) and the Tissue and Cell Molecular Analysis (TACMA) Shared Resources provide normal and neoplastic human tissues for cancer research at Mayo, and are resources of expertise, collaborative support, and service for pathology, immunohistochemistry, laser capture microdissection, tissue microarray preparation, and nucleic acid extraction.

The Biospecimens and Patient Registry Core of the Breast SPORE is integrated with the existing Shared Resources in order to provide a coordinated, centralized, dedicated program for procuring, processing, and assessing biospecimens and patient data from breast cancer patients and to provide these specimens for research projects within this SPORE and to other investigators with translational research projects. This Core interacts closely with the Biostatistics Core of this SPORE to integrate data into a single database and to provide specimens that meet the statistical requirements for translational research projects supported by this SPORE.

Biostatistics Core
Director: Vera J. Suman, Ph.D.

The Biostatistics Core provides statistical expertise and data management support for each of the Breast SPORE projects, the Developmental Research and Career Development Programs, and the Cores. Functions of the Biostatistics Core include the development of statistical designs and analysis plans, data acquisition and database development, data form development and processing, monitoring data flow, timeliness, and consistency, monitoring patient safety in studies involving human subjects, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript and presentation preparation, and data archiving.

The primary objectives of the Biostatistics Core are to:

• Collaborate with each of the SPORE project teams and the Developmental Research Program project teams on the development of laboratory, animal, and human studies providing statistical design options and feasibility assessments
• Provide a statistical analysis plan for each project and to develop and evaluate alternative statistical data analysis methods
• Carry out the statistical analysis plan
• Collaborate in the interpretation of study results and preparation of presentations and manuscripts
• Provide relational database design, data form development and tracking, monitoring of data consistency, and archiving of data
• Provide an opportunity for all members of the Core to discuss and work through statistical and data management issues together

The existence of the Biostatistics Core assures each investigator access to statistical expertise which includes state of the art data analysis and data management resources as well as provides a mechanism of consistent and compatible data handling. This Core builds upon the innovative and time-tested procedures and systems developed by one of the largest statistical groups in the country, the Mayo Clinic Division of Biostatistics, as well as the Cancer Center's Biostatistics Shared Resource.