The use of biospecimens in population-based research: a review of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences grant portfolio.

Over the past two decades, researchers have increasingly used human biospecimens to evaluate hypotheses related to disease risk, outcomes and treatment. We conducted an analysis of population-science cancer research grants funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to gain a more comprehensive understanding of biospecimens and common derivatives involved in those studies and identify opportunities for advancing the field. Data available for 1,018 extramural, peer-reviewed grants (active as of July 2012) supported by the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), the NCI Division that supports cancer control and population-science extramural research grants, were analyzed. 455 of the grants were determined to involve biospecimens or derivatives. The most common specimen types included were whole blood (51% of grants), serum or plasma (40%), tissue (39%), and the biospecimen derivative, DNA (66%). While use of biospecimens in molecular epidemiology has become common, biospecimens for behavioral and social research is emerging, as observed in our analysis. Additionally, we found the majority of grants were using already existing biospecimens (63%). Grants that involved use of existing biospecimens resulted in lower costs (studies that used existing serum/plasma biospecimens were 4.2 times less expensive) and more publications per year (1.4 times) than grants collecting new biospecimens. This analysis serves as a first step at understanding the types of biospecimen collections supported by NCI DCCPS. There is room to encourage increased use of archived biospecimens and new collections of rarer specimen and cancer types, as well as for behavioral and social research. To facilitate these efforts, we are working to better catalogue our funded resources and make that data available to the extramural community.