What is the NCI Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources and what is its purpose?
The NCI Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources (NCI Best Practices) document comprises salient principles that define state-of-the-science biospecimen resource practices, promote biospecimen and data quality, and support adherence to ethical and legal requirements. Rather than detailed laboratory procedures, the document consists of principles by which such procedures should be developed by biospecimen resources. The NCI Best Practices is intended to be adapted based on the mission and scientific needs of biospecimen resources. While adoption of the NCI Best Practices is voluntary, the Institute believes that the principles it outlines support the goal of optimizing biospecimens for cancer research.
