Breast Cancer SPORE Grant Core Resources

The three Core Resources in the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE are:

• Core 1. Administrative
• Core 2. Biospecimens and Pathology
• Core 3. Biostatistics and Patient Registry

Core 1: Administrative Core

Director: James N. Ingle, M.D.

The Administrative Core is responsible for providing administrative and organizational support for the leadership of the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE. It facilitates communication between Breast Cancer SPORE components, the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic as a whole, other breast cancer SPOREs and the National Cancer Institute.

This core is crucial to the integration of all Breast Cancer SPORE activities and to effective and efficient oversight. The Administrative Core coordinates the activities of the Breast Cancer SPORE Executive Committee, the Mayo Clinic Inter-SPORE Advisory Committee, the Internal Scientific Advisory Committee and the External Advisory Committee.

This core also provides administrative support for the activities of the Breast Cancer SPORE Developmental Research and Career Development programs. The Administrative Core assists 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.

Core 2: Biospecimens and Pathology Core

Co-directors: Daniel W. Visscher, M.D.; and Wilma L. Lingle, Ph.D.

The Biospecimens and Pathology Core provides the biospecimens (frozen tissue, FFPE tissue, tissue microarrays and cell line microarrays, blood, serum, DNA, and RNA), pathology annotations, histological services, and pathology support necessary to support the projects of the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE and other breast cancer translational research projects. The core also provides histology-related services, such as sectioning, immunostaining, antibody optimization and characterization, and digital imaging. Core pathologists provide immunohistochemistry interpretations. These functions are essential to most translational research, including the specific projects included in the Breast Cancer SPORE.

Core 3: Biostatistics and Patient Registry Core

Director: Vera J. Suman, Ph.D.

The Biostatistics and Patient Registry Core provides statistical collaboration and data management support for each of the Breast Cancer SPORE projects, the cores, the Developmental Research projects and the Career Development awardees.

Areas of support include:

• Development of a statistical design and analysis plan
• Quality control
• Database development
• Data form development and processing
• Data collection and entry
• Data analysis and interpretation
• Manuscript preparation
• Data archiving
• Oversight of the development, population and maintenance of the Breast Cancer Patient Registry (BCPR)

Members of the Biostatistics and Patient Registry Core are also collaborating with other Mayo Clinic staff on an enterprisewide initiative to develop a virtual data warehouse that integrates elements of Mayo Clinic resources, including:

• Electronic medical records
• Surgical index
• Pathology index
• Tumor registry
• Tissue registry
• Cancer Center database
• Orders
• Resource utilization database

This collaborative effort will lead to a way to identify patient cohorts for Breast Cancer SPORE projects and to electronically populate some elements into the Breast Cancer Patient Registry.