A study collecting and storing samples of cancers that are usually only found in children and young people (VIVO Biobank)

You may have samples taken as part of your diagnosis and treatment. These can be blood samples, tissue samples (biopsies ) or a bone marrow sample . Your doctors or nurses may ask your permission for a small sample of this to store in the VIVO Biobank. The sample they take will be about the size of a grape, or about a teaspoonful of blood or bone marrow. It is unlikely that you will need to have any extra procedures done to provide a tissue sample or a bone marrow sample. Your healthcare team will always try to use any extra tissue or bone marrow taken during your treatment.

DNA may be separated from your blood samples and stored for research purposes. This may include genetic testing to see what type of cancer you have. These results will not be sent to you or your medical team.

The VIVO Biobank will also collect information from your medical notes. This will be about your diagnosis, treatment and how you are getting on. This can help research into which treatments work on different types of cancer. They will treat all this information anonymously, so no one will be able to link it or your samples to you.

How can researchers use the VIVO Biobank samples?

A researcher can ask for permission from a committee to use samples from this tissue bank. The committee includes experts such as scientists and doctors. Patients and their families are also included in the committee. This committee makes sure that it is good and ethical research. And the samples are used in the best possible way.  Researchers may also ask for information from your medical records. All samples and information have a special number attached. So the researchers cannot identify you.