Breast tissue banking: collection, handling, storage, and release of tissue for breast cancer research.

A "tumor bank" provides a resource tool that can efficiently address the limitations of other tissue resources, such as clinical archives and research study collections. A tumor bank allows formal accreditation of ethics and security procedures, and through a dedicated management, processing, storage, retrieval, and release structure, can provide selected and preassembled material and data for research and discovery. This chapter describes the design, operating protocols, and methods for processing, storage, and release of the Manitoba Breast Tumor Bank.