Where does TARP tissue come from? Can I get more information on the tissue or frozen samples?
The tissue used to construct the TARP arrays is obtained from the Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN). The tissue is excess surgical resection tissue – in other words, tissue that is left over after the pathologist has taken sections required for diagnosis. The tissue is formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded. Some history is available from surgical pathology reports, but this information is very limited. We are working to include more clinical data, but age and sex are unknown for more than 10 percent of cases. The tissue is anonymous and delinked, meaning that we cannot obtain more information or additional tissue. The tissue is obtained with the understanding that it will be used to depletion. We make every attempt to use this resource to its fullest. Matched frozen tissue, additional history, or whole sections from the blocks are not available.
