The Komen Tissue Bank

The Komen Tissue Bank (KTB), the only storehouse in the world for women’s normal breast tissue, plasma, serum, DNA, and richly annotated data, is committed to preventing breast cancer. The research done by the KTB and other global researchers, using the tissue samples that the KTB gathers, is significant and provides insight on how breast cancer manifests. The KTB outreach to women from minoritized populations is prioritized to help ensure as many populations as possible benefit from any subsequent clinical trials and research done with KTB samples. The KTB engages women who self-identify as belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups and works to inform and recruit them through focus groups, social media, and in-person events. Within the Komen Tissue Bank, calculating Tyrer Cuzick scores is a helpful method of estimating the likelihood of cancer risk among women. One of my many projects was to use a Tyrer Cuzick calculator and enter women’s personal demographic data, such as age, weight, height, etc., to calculate risk scores. The results are recorded into the KTB designated database, Opal.

Supervisor: Alison Hughes
Department: IU Simon Cancer Center Komen Tissue Bank